Overexertion
by stride.for.victory
Summary: Keith pushes his combat abilities too far, affecting not only him but he rest of the paladins. He learns his limits the hard way. More description in the first chapter. Also, I wanted to say that this story has received the most hits and follows out of all my works. Thank you all so much! P.S. I am willing to work with artists and commission art for this story! Please DM me. :)
1. Heatstroke

Keith is not Korean. I've had many people confirm that and yell at me for writing he was Korean, so that's been edited out. I'm not upset, it's totally fine. I started to dislike it too. Also, it is canon that Lance is Cuban, and his nationality is referenced in the story. Also, just so it's clear, this fic takes place after episode 9 but before episode 10 in season one. It is also an AU where they go back to Aris (for some reason). Not super important information, but handy I guess. If you have any questions, please leave a review and ask way!

 **AN** (author's note): Slight Klance. Like, bromance Klance. And slight Sheith (Shiro x Keith) but not really.  
 **Disclaimer:** I own nothing. All characters and settings belong to the creators of _Voltron: Legendary Defender_.

P.S. I am willing to work with artists and commission art for this story! Seeing my written work come to life with art would literally be a dream come true. Of course, all artistic credit would be given Please leave a comment if interested and/or DM me. :)

(07/06/2017) Updated for grammar and format. :)

* * *

 **Chapter 1: Heatstroke**

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The mechanical being and the young man clashed swords with might fury; sparks flew once again as they did. Keith had purposely made battling the Gladiator harder for himself, increasing the intensity level and difficulty up to 6.

Just two weeks ago, when the still undiscovered paladins arrived at Princes Allura's castle, they trained on a level zero, a beginner level fit for Altean _children_. That level proved difficult to master even for a galactic veteran like Shiro!

But by training himself to his limits, Keith built his strength and endurance up to a level 6 fighter, fit for Altean soldiers ready to enter the battlefield. It made him feel a whole lot better, knowing he could fight at a level greater than a child was able to, according to Allura.

Keith challenged himself today more than ever; he fought the Gladiator without his armor. It was acceptable for him to do so from levels zero to 3, but on a level 6? ... 'May not have been my brightest idea,' Keith told himself, 'but at least now I'll be ready for whatever comes my way.'

He made sure to pay attention to his footing, and to protect the sides of his body from the metallic being. A strike at this level would prove fatal.

The time must have been somewhere around 6:00am in Earth hours, the earliest Keith had gotten himself up from bed since their stay at the castle.

His stomach growled and his mouth beckoned to be quenched, but the mere glass of water he brought with him before training was long empty.

'What's wrong with me?' Keith thought. 'I never eat before I train, only after. And I drank two glasses of water before bed last night.' Yet his body wanted more.

\

Meanwhile, Shiro washed up in the bathroom nearest to his bedroom. He had a towel slinged over his shoulder, and wore a sleeveless shirt with comfortable, form-fitting pants. After freshening up in the bathroom, he made his way down to the training arena.

It wasn't unusual for the other castle occupants to find him up and about before anyone else. He enjoyed being the first one awake; it made him feel like the protector, the guard of the domain, even if it was a temporary duty he held. Like he once said, and Allura accentuated, they had to be ready to fight the Galra at all times.

But when he didn't need to keep his guard so high up, Shiro enjoyed taking some time to strengthen his body and push himself a little further; since their main objective was to be prepared for whatever the Galra had planned for them, he got the opportunity to train himself as often as he liked. The thought made him grin warmly.

\

The battle raged on in the training arena between the Gladiator and Keith. Keith noticed his reflexes beginning to slow. His throat was littered with mucus, and he found his breath difficult to catch, but with a brief spit to the side, he kept on fighting.

Prior to their sword-to-sword combat, Keith practiced his hand-to-hand combat with the android for nearly a half hour, taking only the said water break in between before grabbing his Bayard and initiating sword-to-sword combat.

Now Keith battled the android for nearly an hour. He began to lose focus on the fight, as the screams of his body distracted him. It begged him to stop. To take a breather. But no. 'I can't stop now. The training sequence is almost over.'

But when Keith couldn't properly lift his sword to swing at his opponent, he knew he had no other choice.

He hung his head and dropped his arms as he gasped for air. His heart thumped in his chest, so hard that Keith was afraid it might burst from its cage. He could hear his pulse in his head and feel it in his throat. "End training sequence..." he huffed with all his might. Thankfully, the computer heard his words and the android shut down.

It was more difficult now than ever for the red paladin to steady his breath; his lungs burned, and he tried to cough the mucus from his throat, but the beckoning for oxygen in his body was too great.

He ached all over and his face burned, so much so that he felt for flames that might have generated under his skin. When he lifted his hand to his face, he also noticed there were no sweat droplets; the buckets of sweat his body was excreting before stopped pouring after his water break. Keith knew this wasn't a good sign.

He needed a cold glass of water.

He needed to get to the showers and cool himself off.

He tried to steady his footing with the blade of his Bayard, but his legs refused to hold him up.

The last thing he remembered was collapsing to the ground like a rag doll, someone catching his head as he fell.

\

Shiro made it to the training arena just as Keith fell over. He gasped in fear and practically sprinted to Keith's side.

"Keith!" Shiro called as he caught his head. "Can you hear me? Keith!" He received no speech in reply. How could he when Keith lay incapacitated on the floor, gasping for air? He looked like a fish out of water.

Shiro gently lifted him up off the floor, hooking his arms behind Keith's back and under his legs. He carried him from the training deck to the infirmary, then placed him down on the steps, putting his towel underneath the red paladin's head.

His initial idea was to put him in one of the cryogenic pods, but he was afraid he'd press a wrong button and cause Keith further problems.

Keith panted endlessly, still unable to steady his breath. Shiro tried to level his head as he felt Keith's forehead and face, getting a primitive reading of his temperature. 'I may not have any medical background, but I know a fever when I see one.' he thought.

He removed Keith's boots, socks and gloves to allow the heat to escape his body more easily before he dashed to the castle's kitchen, and filled a bowl with ice cold water, soaking a rag in it.

Within a matter of seconds Shiro was back at Keith's side. He ringed the cool rag of excess water and dabbed it around Keith's face, trying to diminish the redness. But Shiro knew that wasn't enough. He needed to get additional help.

He left the rag on Keith's forehead and started to Allura's bedroom; he was sure she'd know what to do.

\

Lance awoke from his slumber by the sound of stomping feet flying down several hallways, gradually getting closer to his room. He propped himself up on his elbow and blinked his vision into focus, then swung his feet over the edge of his bed and gave his body a quick stretch before he sluggishly made his way to the door.

"What's going on?" he murmured, peering his head out.

Shiro swooped past Lance's door, but stopped in his tracks at the sound of his voice. He wasn't sure if Lance would be any help to Keith, but it was worth a try; this was a dire situation.

"Lance, do you know how to treat heatstroke?" Shiro asked with his hands feverishly, making his way over to him.

Lance had to blink a few times before he could comprehend what Shiro asked him. "H- heatstroke? Yeah, actually I do why who got heatstroke?" His statements and questions all merged into one sentence.

"Great! I need you to go aid to Keith, he's in the infirmary."

"Uh sure, on my way." Lance started toward the infirmary, but asked Shiro one last thing before he went. "Wait, where are _you_ going?"

"There's no time to explain, just go!"

So Lance went to help Keith as Shiro continued down toward Allura's room.

Lance jogged his way down to the infirmary and found his fellow paladin lying limply on the steps.

"Keith!" Lance called as he knelt by him. He still breathed heavily, as though he had lifted one of the Lions off the ground. "Keith, can you hear me? Hey..." he patted Keith's face, still engulfed in flames.

Lance bit his lip in worry as he rewet the rag that was now warm on Keith's forehead. "Don't worry, buddy, Lance is here to help. We'll getcha all better in no time."

He wasn't sure if Keith could hear his words, but he heard that some incapacitated people could hear others speak to them; Lance hoped Keith was one of those people.

"I'll be right back." Lance then told him, leaving a freshly wet, cool rag on his neck.

He made his way to Pidge's room. He hated to wake her at this hour (it was about 7:15am in Earth hours), but he knew she could help.

Once when Lance had cut himself up badly (after tripping and falling into a bunch of rocks without his armor on), Pidge helped him with his wounds, cleaning them and patching them up for him. She had a first-aid kit the size of a briefcase.

"Pidge!" Lance called as he neared her door. "Wake up, I need you to tell me where your first-aid kit is!" he told her urgently as he scanned her disorganized room for the kit.

Pidge woke with a start, rubbing the guck from her eyes and putting her glasses on.

"What? Ugh... A 'good morning' would be nice, ya know." she grumbled. "What do you need a first-aid kit for?"

Lance spoke right after Pidge ended her question. "It's for Keith. He's having a heatstroke. Your kit has saline solution in it, right?" He remembered seeing a pouch of the liquid before.

"Yeah, I do. The kit is in the closet." Pidge pointed.

"Great." Lance swung the closet door open and grabbed the kit. "Now put some pants on and follow me!"

"I _have_ pants on! Excuse me for sleeping in shorts."

\

Meanwhile, Shiro made it to Allura and practically shook her from her sleep. She woke up with such a start she slapped Shiro across his face, leaving a bright red mark on his cheek.

When she came to and realized who had woken her up, she apologized vigorously.

"Never mind that. Keith needs your help. He's succumbed to heatstroke." No more had to be said.

When they made it back to the infirmary, they found Pidge and Lance tending to Keith with a first-aid kit.

"Make sure you hold the bag vertically. We don't want any air bubbles in his veins." Pidge told Lance after she inserted an ivy-drip into the vein of his wrist, securing it with gauze.

"Got it. Check his temperature." Lance told her. Pidge removed the elastic around his bicep and took out a digital thermometer, placing it in his ear. When the reading came up, she exclaimed, "Oh my god!"

"What, what's wrong?" Allura and Lance asked simultaneously.

"His temperature is at 105! One more degree and he'll have some serous internal damage!" Pidge told them both.

"Step aside, Pidge." Allura ordered as she knelt at Keith's side. "Keith, can you hear me?" He was still unresponsive, but the others were glad to see that his breathing had slightly slowed in tempo.

"How long has he been like this?" she asked Shiro.

He ran a tense hand through his hair as he said, "A- about 10 minutes. I found him at the training deck and caught him just as he collapsed."

"Well, good thing you woke me up. Like Pidge said: any longer and he would have sustained substantial damage to his brain and organs." Allura informed them, only increasing their worry for Keith's well-being.

She then shut her eyes and ran a glowing hand over the sides of his face and his midsection, as if scanning his innards. "He'll be alright. Thanks to your quick action and Pidge's first-aid kit. He _will_ need to spend a day in a pod, however."

An inner wave of relief flooded the three paladins; good news was very necessary.

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 _Thank you so much for reading! Reviews and favorites are noticed and appreciated. :)_


	2. Detached

**AN:** (07/06/2017) Updated for grammar and format. :)

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Detached**

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Shiro once again carried Keith, this time to a prep room adjacent to the cryogenic pods. Allura called Coran to change Keith into a standard healing suit, since he had done the same for Lance when he was in a coma. That, and Coran was the only one who remembered how to prepare an organism for the cryogenic process.

The IV-drip Pidge had placed in Keith's wrist was removed, and Coran, with the help of Shiro, placed the limp paladin into the nearest pod.

Everyone huddled around the now levitating red paladin. "How long will he need to be in there?" Shiro asked Allura after she activated the pod.

"About 24 hours. My quintesence scan didn't show any serious damage done to his organs, but I'm not so sure about his brain. The longer he stays in the pod, the better. I logged specific directions into the computer, so the healing process focuses most on his mind after his body is repaired."

It was now around 8:00 am in Earth hours. Pidge and Lance were still tired, but neither of them were sure they'd be able to fall back asleep if they went back to bed. The lot of them knew Hunk would be up soon and looking forward to breakfast, and Shiro knew he'd probably have to explain what happened to Keith. It proved more of a challenge, however, now that Shiro knew Keith had come close to death.

Nonetheless, the team gathered themselves as best as they could and moved throughout their day with the rising sun.

Planning the day's activities was difficult, since they couldn't form Voltron and train without Keith. It was what the paladins usually did, since defeating the Galra was their top priority.

So the paladins made due with what they _could_ do: Pidge assisted Allura and Coran with improving the castle's defenses, learning some Altean along the way. Hunk spent most of the day flying around in his Lion, continuing to teach his stomach to tolerate the G-Forces created from twisting, turning and nose diving, with Lance and Shiro joining him after taking part in an hour-session of power-yoga.

It was more than an off day for the castle occupants, but it went by nonetheless. Shiro was glad his prayers for the Galra to leave them alone for one day were heard. 'But tomorrow could be a whole other story.' he reminded himself as he laid uncomfortably in his bed that night.

\

Lance sat next to Keith's cryo-pod once again. He had been spending all his free time at the infirmary, waiting for when the pod let his fellow paladin out.

It was the next day now, and after a quick and slightly uncomfortable breakfast (since Keith wasn't around), 10 rounds of target practice at the training deck, flight practice with his and the other's Lions, and another session of power-yoga with Shiro, it was late and Lance was exhausted. The digital clock on his night stand must have read somewhere around 11:48pm.

Yoga with Shiro started around 10pm that evening, and after Lance hit the showers, he silently went back to the infirmary to sit with Keith.

He rested his head on his arms that were crossed over his knees. He stared at the floor as he thought back to his flight with Blue, and how it wasn't the same without Keith's competitive spirit. Not that the flight was dull or dreary, on the contrary. Allura activated all the castles defensive lasers and missiles, so all the paladins could focus on was dodging the fire.

But Keith still danced at the back of his mind.

He wondered what made Keith get heatstroke in the first place. 'Was it a lack of water? Was the air conditioning off while he was training? Was it because he trained too hard for too long?'

It must have been the last option. Lance knew his fellow paladin was determined on improving his fighting abilities as much as he could.

Just as Lance blinked himself back into reality, the cryogenic healing pod opened up and Keith stumbled out.

Lance sprung up and steadied the dizzy paladin, hooking his arm under Keith's shoulder. From the look of it, the red paladin was still unresponsive. Lance called his name several times, but Keith didn't move a muscle.

Lance knew he needed to get Allura or Coran to help him, but he didn't know what to do with Keith. The logical thing was to take Keith with him, but Lance was so lost in thought before the pod released the young paladin, his mind fell apart at the sudden happening.

Just then, Allura came into the infirmary with Shiro at her side. The two of them gasped and dashed over to Lance when they saw him supporting Keith.

"How is he?" Shiro asked feverishly.

"I don't know." Lance replied truthfully, fear littering his voice.

"When did he come out of the pod?" Allura inquired.

"Uh, j- just before you two showed up. Like, literally a minute ago." Shiro took Keith's other arm and draped it over his shoulder, lightening the gravity the red paladin had on Lance's shoulder. Lance smiled thankfully at him.

"Keith? Can you hear me?" Allura beckoned, but received nothing in reply but a groan. "He might be able to hear us, but he _is_ still unconscious."

"What should we do now?" Shiro asked.

"I don't know..." Allura trailed.

"Well if you don't know and Allura doesn't know, were _screwed!_ _"_ Lance then exclaimed.

"Relax, we'll find a way to bring him back. We have to." Shiro tried to assure him.

Lance sighed, trying to ease the tension in his throat.

"Here, let me scan him again. Hold him still." Allura closed her eyes and ran a glowing blue hand over the length of Keith's body. "The pod seems to have healed his being effectively. Let me check his mind." She shut her eyes once more and now pressed both of her glowing hands onto Keith's scalp. "Just as I assumed. His thoughts appear to be running awry and his motor reflexes are not active."

Lance blinked his tired eyes in confusion. "Okay, how about in English this time?" he asked Allura.

She turned to him and simplified, "He's unable to think straight or move at all. He may be paralyzed for a few days..."

"A few days!? Allura we don't _have_ a few days! What if the Galra attack and we have to form Voltron? We can't just substitute Keith for Coran or something!"

"LANCE." Shiro demanded.

"I'm sorry, Shiro, but I'm being realistic." As much as Shiro wanted to argue against Lance, he knew deep down that the blue paladin was right.

" _Both_ of you shut up!" Allura then shouted. "You two didn't let me finish. What I was going to say was: he may be paralyzed for a few days _unless_ I perform an old healing spell on his mind. We Alteans are fond of many healing spells." Allura clarified, then smiled.

"Alright cool great so do it." Lance slurred as he lifted a drooping Keith into his arms.

"Lance, seriously, calm down." Shiro tried to tell him with as much understanding as possible, but it began to get annoying. "Trust that Allura knows what she's doing, alright?"

"I never said I didn't trust her, I just-"

"It's fine. Let's just get Keith to his room and perform the spell." she said with an understanding hand on Lance's shoulder.

Shiro shook his head at Lance with a small grin as he began to follow Allura.

"What?! Don't gimme that look, Shiro, we all know you're _just_ as worried about Keith as the rest of us."

"I never said I wasn't. You're just overreacting a bit."

"I am _not_." Lance countered as they made their way to Keith's bedroom, this time Lance carrying him.

"Guys, be quiet!" Allura hissed. "You're going to wake the others." And just like that, she shut them up.

Once the trio made it to Keith's bedroom, Shiro assisted Lance in gently laying Keith on his bed. It seemed the trip to his bedroom caused Keith some sort of distress. 'Maybe it was the switch from floating in the pod to then being carried,' Lance thought. He hadn't seen so much stress built up on one person's face. Even though Keith was still unconscious, there was a lingering expression of struggle plaguing his features.

After the black and blue paladins placed Keith down, Allura seated herself adjacent to him and shut her eyes. She began the healing spell, quietly chanting in Altean as her hands glowed over Keith's head.

Shiro quickly noticed Lance's distraught nature. The blue paladin would bite his nails from time to time as he paced around the room deep in thought, glancing at Keith as Allura healed him. As Lance was about to pass Shiro for the 8th time, the black paladin gently stopped him with his hand on Lance's shoulder. Lance whipped his head up and looked at Shiro in surprise, as though the black paladin had ripped him from his thoughts.

Shiro nodded toward a far corner of the room, and the two stepped away from Allura and Keith.

"Talk to me. What's the matter?" Shiro asked with a worried and hushed tone.

"Shiro, you know 'what's the matter.' How are we supposed to do anything with Keith like this?" Lance spoke in a sharp whisper, careful not to disturb Allura as she performed her spell but showing his distress nonetheless.

"Listen, do you know a quicker way to get Keith back to normal?" Shiro asked rhetorically. "Allura is doing the best she can. It's a bit insulting that you don't trust she can heal Keith-"

"No, Shiro, it's not that. I do trust Allura…it's just…I know how it feels like to be incapacitated. You're stuck in an enormous abyss of darkness with images of what you think are from the past…circling around you…you can't even remember if they happened or not. You're so separated from yourself its… _terrifying_. Mind you, _I_ didn't have much damage to my mind when I was knocked out. And when I stumbled out of the pod, I was awake. Keith…isn't." Lance then removed his hands from his pockets and spoke with them. "Pidge and Allura both said Keith may have some substantial damage done to his brain. What if nothing can help him? What if, when he wakes up, and he's not Keith anymore?"

"Don't talk like that. Don't _think_ like that, for that matter. You can't give up hope, Lance."

"I just…feel for him." The blue paladin admitted, looking over at Keith once more.

"Look," Shiro placed his hand back on Lance's shoulder. He pointed to Allura, whose hands still glowed over Keith's head. "Allura isn't human. She's capable of so much more than us."

Lance's weary eyes gleamed when he looked at the princess's glowing hands.

"She can help him. Don't you worry." There was a pause of silence between them before Lance looked back at Shiro and nodded in understanding. "Now, go get some shut-eye. You need it." Shiro added, his hand patting Lance's shoulder.

The blue paladin rubbed his droopy eyes in a sort of embarrassment. "What about you? You need rest too-"

"I do, but you need it more than I. I'll be fine, trust me. Back on the Galra ship when I was imprisoned, I would be awake for hours on end. I can handle one night awake."

Lance grinned a weak but genuine smile, silently thanking the black paladin for taking the night to watch Keith.

After the spell was performed, Allura instructed Shiro to immediately call her over when Keith awoke.

"Of course, Princess." Shiro nodded, and he and Keith were left alone.

The room was so quiet, the only thing he could hear was the hum of the air purifier and Keith's uneven breathing. The red paladin would hic and shift his head from left to right every now and then. Shiro wondered what could have been bothering his unfortunate paladin. Was he trying to piece together his past life? Trying to remember his family, or his time at the Garrison? It was difficult to tell, and Shiro wished for a moment his has Allura's scanning abilities.

His worry for Keith was significantly high, even at the dead of night, but in the serene silence of the room, even a trooper like Shiro ended up falling asleep.

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 _Thank you so much for reading! Reviews and favorites are noticed and appreciated. :)_


	3. Spilled Water

**AN:** (07/06/2017) Updated for grammar and format. :)

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Spilled Water**

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The light from the morning sun shone brightly through the skylight of the castle hallway. Keith's bedroom door was programed to stay open for the night, thanks to Allura. The warm light was bright in the recovering paladin's eyes. He furrowed his brows as he crept his eyes open and blinked his vision into focus. He looked around and found that he was lying in his bed, but he wasn't alone; he heard someone snoring at his bedside, but couldn't lift his head to see who it was. There was a sort of overwhelming pressure on his limbs that prevented him from moving a muscle, yet no heavy material was placed on him. The more he tried to move his body, the more his heart thumped.

Keith grunted as he put all he had in trying to move, even in the slightest, when finally his efforts proved worthy and the rest of his being spazzed awake. He sprung up and steadied his breath, his movements sending vibrations throughout his bed, waking Shiro in the process.

The black paladin awoke with a start, but quickly regained his composure, his worry for Keith returning. Shiro sat up onto the edge of the red paladin's bed as he asked, "Hey, how are you feeling?" He observed Keith's face intently.

Keith sat up all the way and ran a hand through his hair before he mumbled, "Alright, I guess…" He paused as he tried to gather his thoughts, but he quickly realized he couldn't. "Arg, my head's a mess."

Shiro was about to let the weary paladin say more, but his worry and anger at Keith got the best of him. He looked to the side in thought and said, "You'll be fine…" Shiro then furrowed his brows and spoke sharply, letting everything out. "Keith, what were you doing up so early that day, when I found you passing out? That was the _third_ day in a row I found you at the training deck before me!" Shiro exclaimed.

Keith was so startled at Shiro's sudden outburst, he braced himself; but at the same time, he was slightly glad the black paladin was yelling at him. His training sequence with the gladiator, something he didn't remember initially, came flooding back into his mind. The young paladin couldn't remember much, but he distinctly remembered the moment his energy drained from his being. He looked away and kept quiet, but an expression of embarrassment brewed on his face.

"You _can't_ exert yourself that much, Keith." Shiro went on. "Do you realize you would have _died_ if Lance hadn't known how to help you?"

At that, Keith raised his head. "Lance?" he mumbled.

"Yes. Lance knew how to treat heatstroke because people would succumb to it all the time back in Cuba. Temperatures there reach up to 130 degrees in the summer." Shiro informed him.

(I know that temperature is high, but I would think that a couple hundred years into the future, global warming and greenhouse gas levels would be greater than they are now. Ya know, science stuff.)

"Oh…" was all Keith could mumble. He was in utter shock.

Shiro noticed his distress. "Look, I'm sorry about yelling at you right after you woke up…but you can't do that to yourself, Keith, _ever_ again."

He looked at Shiro with understanding eyes, but there was more confusion in them than anything. "How long have I been out?"

"About three days."

"Feels like three months…"

"What can you remember?"

"About what?"

"About anything." Shiro shrugged. "Tell me where you are." He tested.

Keith looked around his room again, and then out into the hallway from his bed. "In Allura's castle, on Eris."

"Yes, that's right. How old are you?"

"Sixteen."

"What color is your lion?"

"Blue- I mean red! Red."

Shiro furrowed his brows momentarily. "Which is it?"

"Red, my lion is red."

"Any reason you said blue?-"

"I just got confused." Keith cut in.

Shiro didn't want to upset Keith in his unstable state. "Alright. Well…do you…remember going to the Garrison? We were roommates. You were the top of your class, the best pilot out of everyone."

The more Shiro spoke about Keith's enrollment at the academy, the more he looked lost. It was as though the black paladin expected Keith to know about Kerberos when he described it. He stuttered in confusion and resumed examining his hands, trying to piece reality together.

Shiro's worry for the red paladin only grew. They attended Galaxy Garrison for two years together; how could Keith not remember? 'Maybe this is all too much too soon.' Shiro told himself. He rubbed the back of his neck and debated what to do or say next.

Meanwhile, Keith's mind ran wild; all he could think about was his fight with the gladiator, now three days ago. He had been getting up earlier than anyone to not only improve his technique, but build his strength. He knew his lean arms needed more muscle definition if he could even stand a chance fighting Galra soldiers. He hated being tossed around by them, like he was by Sendak. And if he could be defeated by a training robot, he was nowhere near ready to fight a Galra soldier and win.

But underneath it all, Shiro was right. The red paladin had pushed himself too far this time.

Keith blinked the haze of tears that formed around his eyes. He felt so stupid; not only had he gotten Shiro and the rest of the paladins worried about him, but he nearly _killed_ himself.

"I just wanted to be great like you." Keith then said aloud.

Shiro lifted his head from his hands and looked over at Keith. "What?" Had he heard him correctly? He now faced Keith completely and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Keith, you shouldn't try to be like anybody. If you kept on trying to be like me, eventually, we wouldn't be able to form Voltron anymore. Do you understand that?"

A heavy silence filled the room as Shiro paused. Keith avoided any eye contact as his throat constricted more and more.

"You need to be you so that you can bond with your Lion. It didn't choose you because you were like me, it chose you because you were Keith. You are Keith. And the Keith we all came to know and care for is already great."

And that did it. Keith's face exposed all the emotions that brewed within him. The first tear fell from his eye as he lunged himself at Shiro and gripped the back of his shirt tight, bawling into his chest.

"I'm sorry..." he choked out.

Shiro needed to steady himself with one hand, so as not to fall on top of Keith. With the other, the one he kept on Keith's shoulder, he held the young Korean back, just as tightly.

In all honesty Shiro was surprised. After all he had seen and done, he never expected Keith to cry in front of anyone, ever again. He had done it once in front of Shiro after he got booted from the Garrison, but that was the only other time he could recall.

As much remorse as Shiro felt for Keith, he couldn't help but grin happily. "It's good to have you back."

Shiro held the frail paladin until he was spent. Keith pulled himself from Shiro's chest and wiped his face with the back of his hand and then wiped the fluids onto the sheets, cringing slightly as he did. He'd always hated crying.

"Stay here and relax. I'll get you some water and then we can talk some more." Shiro then said, looking at Keith genuinely. After the red paladin gave an understanding nod, Shiro went on his way.

As he made his way to the kitchen, the black paladin looked at the time on his arm. The clock in it self-set to the time zone of any planet he was on; it read 8:25 am. 'Allura should be up.' he thought to himself gladly, and after grabbing a glass of cool water for his fellow paladin, he found her in the control room, once again scanning the castle's defenses and such.

She stopped what she was doing and turned toward the door when it opened. "Shiro!" she gasped, dashing to him.

"Princess, I came to tell you Keith was awake."

"Just what I thought. How is he?" Allura asked with concern.

They conversed as they walked back to Keith's bedroom.

"He's alright. He's able to move and think again, and when I asked him a few questions he answered correctly...but, then I asked him about the color of his lion, and he answered 'blue.' It was odd."

"I agree." Allura stated with a raised brow.

"I mean, he quickly corrected himself and said red, but-"

"He shouldn't have said blue in the first place." Allura finished.

"Exactly."

"Well, I'll do a scan of his mind once more and see what the matter is." the princess stated as they continued their way down to Keith's room.

On their way there, the found Coran cooking up breakfast for the soon-to-be-awake paladins, humming merrily.

"Coran, I need you to come with us." she ordered.

Coran whipped his head in her direction and immediately dropped what he was doing. "Uh- of course. Right away, princess!" He speedily untied his apron, tossed it down on the counter and joined Allura and Shiro.

•

After a brief gulp of the water Shiro brought, Allura filled Keith in on how the others helped treat him, and then proceeded to scan his mind.

After she found some surprising activity within it, she turned to Coran and asked, "Are you sure you cleaned _all_ the cryo-pods after us and Lance were in them?"

"Y- yes, princess. I- I'm absolutely… I'm fairly..." he studdered. As Coran thought back to the time Allura mentioned, he realized something. He scratched his head as he admitted, "Actually, come to think of it...I may have missed one."

"How could you have _missed_ one!?" she exclaimed in an outrage.

"I- well, you see, Lance and I were cleaning them while that Galra crystal was infecting the castle, and he got stuck in the pod he was cleaning. He was frozen for..." He tapped his chin. "about 5 dobashes (minutes) or so, and when it let him out neither of us cleaned it-" Coran shrugged, rubbing the back of his head.

The end to his sentence was quickly met by Allura's voice. "Coran, that was _more_ than irresponsible of you! How could you let that happen?!"

"Allura." Shiro then cut in, placing a hand on her shoulder (His signature gesture). He glanced over at Keith, causing her to look at the paladin. She saw wild fear and confusion in his eyes.

"I'm sorry..." she sighed, hanging her head in slight shame.

Keith then straightened up and got Allura to look him dead in his eye. "What's wrong with me?" She was hesitant to respond. "What did you see in my head?" Keith persisted.

Allura didn't want to worry the already distressed paladin, so she simply stated, "It's nothing terrible, I assure you. I'm just shocked Coran did something as foolish as that." She threw him a sharp eye. He avoided eye contact, still embarrassed.

Allura then added, "S- some of your thoughts seem to be mixed up...with Lance's."

Keith quickly furrowed his brows. "What? How is that possible?" He glanced between the princess and Coran.

"We must have placed you in the pod Lance was in when he was recovering." Coran speculated.

"Agh, great..." Keith sighed. "But…that explains the dream I had."

"What was it about?" Shiro then asked the paladin.

"I don't really know." Keith admitted. "It was a short dream... Lance was just walking around my house, you know, that little shack in the desert, and reorganizing everything in it. I tried to tell him to stop but- it was like he couldn't hear me. Like I wasn't there. I can't make sense of it."

They all looked at Keith blankly, not knowing how to reply.

Allura broke the silence. "Well, that is rather strange, but Lance's thoughts _may_ fade from your mind. The mice and I are telepathically connected because we shared a pod for 10,000 years. But since you were in Lance's pod for roughly 24 hours, I don't think the effects are permanent."

That brought a wave of relief to the young Korean.

"But if you need anything, just let us know." She spoke to him more slowly than usual, looking at the paladin intently as she spoke.

Keith noticed this but decided not to act on it. "Alright...will do." he nodded.

"Coran, I need you to be ready to aid to Keith at all costs. I'm trusting you on this." Allura said, looking over at him.

"Yes, princess. I assure you, I won't let you down." He saluted her, then drew his gaze onto Keith, his eyes exaggerated and wide.

"If you don't feel right, you need to let either Coran or Allura know, Keith." Shiro told him firmly. "Do you understand?"

Keith furrowed is brows again and scoffed. "Can you guys stop treating me like I'm some sort of psychiatric patient!?" He yelled at the lot of them, then turned to Allura. "First I hear Pidge hooked me up to an IV drip, then you performed some sort of spell on me, and now you're all talking to me like I don't understand English. I'm can comprehend just fine, alright?" He swiftly stood up from his bed. "See? I can walk just fine." He walked to the doorway and back. "I'm able to move, able to talk." He spoke with his hands, then slapped them down at his sides, sitting back on his bed.

He then looked over to the black paladin with sharp eyes. "Like you said, Shiro, 'I'm still _Keith_!'" Just as he stated his name, Keith swung his hand out and knocked the glass of water from Shiro's grasp, spilling it all over his bed.

Everyone in the room stood frozen, taken back by Keith's outburst.

He apologized, taking the now empty glass in his hand. "I- I'll clean it up." Keith stood up from the now soaked bed to get a towel or a rag, something to dry the puddle of water, but Allura halted him.

"No, Keith. You go with Coran and get changed out of the cryo-suit. And grab something nutritious to eat afterwards. You'll need it." She took the glass from his hand, and gestured for him to walk toward Coran.

"Fine." was all he was willing to say in reply. Deep down, Keith appreciated the concern they felt for him, but he never liked to be babied. He had spent a whole year living alone at the abandoned shack in the canyon; he could handle himself just fine.

Coran held a helping hand out to Keith, but he didn't bother to so much as look at him.

* * *

 **AN** : I hope most if not all of you recognize the metaphor that is the title. You know how Lance is the guardian spirit of water, as stated by the creators of Voltron? "Spilled Water" is the title of the chapter? Yeah, I tried to hint that some of Lance's personality seeped into Keith with the title lol If you didn't catch that, well, now you know. Thanks for reading!

 _Thank you so much for reading! Reviews and favorites are noticed and appreciated. :)_


	4. Babied and Bitten Down

**AN** : (07/06/2017) Updated for grammar and format. :)

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Babied and Bitten Down**

\\\

Keith's clothes were washed and put back into the prep room adjacent to the infirmary, so he and Coran made their way there. The red paladin, still upset about being treated like a child, walked with his head down and his brows tensely furrowed. 'I don't think Allura is telling me everything, which is just rude of her. It _is_ my mind… If she thinks she's not telling me for my own good, she's wrong… Its only making me more scared not only of myself, but for the other paladins…' Keith thought to himself, his hands balled up in fists. He hated feeling powerless.

It wasn't that he had something against Lance, it was the fact that he had no control over what was going on in his mind that upset him. He could recall recent events, but ones that occurred over 2 weeks ago were a blur. It was like putting a million-piece puzzle together; he could link some fragments to form an image and/or a sequence of events, but other pieces of the puzzle were too far for him to reach, let alone put together.

Keith's thoughts were interrupted then, as he and Coran were halfway to the infirmary. Someone was talking to him, but it didn't sound like the voice was Coran's, and it surprised Keith so suddenly he stopped short and frantically looked around him.

Coran came to his side and placed a hand on his back and asked, "Keith, what's the matter?"

He huffed in reply, "Th- this is going to sound crazy…but I think I'm hearing- someone's voice."

"Well, you're right. That does sound a bit crazy." Coran said to himself. Keith threw him a glare. "Uh- what is it saying?"

The paladin held his head. "All kinds of things. It's a male voice, that's for sure…" He waited for the voice to echo in his head again. "It…sounds like Lance. Like I'm hearing his thoughts."

Coran only blinked in response, then turned and tapped his chin in thought. "Well, can you reply to him, you know, telepathically?"

"I mean, I could try." he shrugged. "But I don't think I should right now. That would probably scare the pants off him." Keith laughed. "That, and I'm still not sure if the voice is actually Lance's."

"Right, right. Well, if it says anything out of the ordinary, you let me know." Coran ordered with a wave of his finger. Keith rolled his eyes and nodded in understanding, and the two resumed making their way to the infirmary.

\

Lance was rummaging around at the castle's kitchen, looking for something Earthly to have for breakfast. He'd found a box of snacks similar to graham crackers once, so his search wasn't completely in vain. He found a jar of what looked like red jelly and licked his lips, but upon opening it, he discovered it smelled like feet and mushrooms, not the sweet strawberries he was hoping for. With a frown and a groan of frustration, he put the jar of false-jelly back in its place.

Just then Hunk waddled in, scratching his stomach. After releasing a wide yawn, he asked, "Lance? Huh, that's funny. I'm usually the one people find in here first thing in the morning."

"First of all, Hunk, it's almost 9am," Lance pointed out, closing the cabinet he was rummaging through. "And second…I woke up around 7 and couldn't fall back asleep." He crossed his arms and leaned against the counter. Upon looking down as he practically mumbled his last sentence, Lance saw how bitten down his nails were; he quickly tucked his fingers away into the bend of his elbows.

Lance was sure Hunk knew why he'd suddenly become uncomfortable. The blue paladin went to him whenever he needed to vent.

"Your hair is wet." Hunk pointed out as he grabbed a bowl from the dish washer.

Lance was relieved he didn't ask about his crossed arms. "Yeah, I did some morning yoga, showered and then came for some food. Though I didn't find anything _different_ yet."

After squeezing the usual green goop they all ate into his bowl, Hunk looked back at Lance and raised it up in an offering gesture.

Lance waved the offer away. "Nah, I'm good. I'll just wait for Coran to finish whatever he was making." Lance then pointed to the mess that was left on the counter.

"Oh, yeah." Only at Lance's mentioning did Hunk notice the mess. "That's odd. Coran never leaves a dish in the making. Any idea he just left it like that?"

"I'm not sure, but it must have something to do with Keith." Usually when Lance mentioned the red paladin in such a way, it was to blame him for something that was rightfully Lance's own fault; but this time, it was different.

"Yeah, you're probably right. Speaking of which, have you seen him yet? Heard anything about how he's doing?" Hunk asked, subconsciously taking a spoonful of the goo.

"Hunk, you know I'd run straight to you if I found out anything more about Keith."

"You _have_ a point there." the yellow paladin chuckled.

"Also, uh, about last night." Lance rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry for barging into your room so late. I didn't mean to keep you up." Lance had gone to Hunk's room to vent after Shiro sent him off to bed. His worry for the red paladin consumed him so much, Lance knew he needed to talk it out with someone he trusted more than anyone before sleep was even an option.

Hunk shrugged, "Don't even mention it. It was no problem. You need someone to vent to, I'm available 24/7."

Lance was so fortunate to have such an understanding friend. He grinned genuinely and thanked the yellow paladin before dozing off in thought once more.

Hunk didn't mind the silence that filled the kitchen then; it was a sort of warm, comfortable silence that he enjoyed the spoonfulls of his goop in. That is, until Lance started to tap his fingers on the counter. It started off with just one or two fingers, but the rest of the blue paladin's flanges quickly joined in, creating a disorganized mess of sound.

Hunk furrowed his brows in confusion at Lance, and worry began to brew for the paladin when he caught a glance his friend's hands. Hunk quickly dropped his spoon into the bowl, startling Lance from his train of thought.

The blue paladin blinked himself back into the room as the yellow paladin blinked in disbelief. "Wowh," Hunk gasped, taking Lance's hand into his and bringing it closer to his face. "those don't look so good." he commented about Lance's nails. The blue paladin whipped his hand away from Hunk and crossed his arms again, turning his back to the other paladin in embarrassment. "You've been thinking about Keith a lot, huh?" Hunk asked with a sort of understanding concern.

"No, not _thinking_. I was _worrying_ about Keith." Lance strictly corrected over his shoulder.

"For most of the night?" the yellow paladin asked with a raised brow.

"No, just for a bit this mor-" Lance began to explain, but then realized the tone of Hunk's voice. "Shut your quiznak, alright?" he snapped, whipping back around to Hunk. "It's too early for this crap..." Lance added as he leaned back against the counter.

Hunk couldn't help but laugh. "Lance, it's almost nine in the morning, like you said."

Just as Lance threw the paladin a look, Coran came rushing in to the kitchen, and he leaped up. "Coran! Where were you? Have you seen Keith?"

"Yes, yes I've seen him. He's doing just fine!" Coran replied merrily but didn't pause to look at Lance as he re-tied his apron at the speed of light and resumed making breakfast.

"Oh, that's great!" Hunk cheered.

"Yes, but _DON'T_ ask him about it. He'll get very upset." the Altean then emphasized, this time taking a second to lock eyes with both paladins.

"What do you mean? Neither of us know what really happened to him." Lance stated.

"And he's not so sure himself. So, the best thing to do would just be to treat him like Keith. Don't 'baby' him, that's what he told me." Coran recalled as he rapidly mixed the yellow and green mixture he left sitting in a large bowl.

Lance couldn't understand why Keith would be offended when asked how he was doing. He looked at Hunk in confusion, hoping he had some sort of explanation. Unfortunately, the yellow paladin only shrugged, just as lost as Lance.

Just then, as Coran scooped the yellow-green mixture onto a baking tray, the alarms sounded all about the castle. " **Caution: Galra spacecraft in bound.** " a robotic voice repeated three times before Allura came on the intercom. "All paladins, except Keith, to the control room, _now_! Keith, you go back to your room and stay put!" she ordered.

"Quiznak! I'm not leaving the kitchen until breakfast is made!" Coran exclaimed in frustration. "You two go. I'll meet everyone in the control room."

"So whatever you're making won't be ready before we fight? Aw, man!" Lance whined, slumping over in defeat. "Arg, looks like I'll have to settle for goop again." The blue paladin swiped the bowl Hunk held in his hands and scarfed down its remaining contents, throwing the bowl in the sink in frustration afterwards.

"Hey, be careful!" Coran exclaimed to Lance as he and Hunk made their way to the control room, as ordered. "That's ten-thousand-year-old kitchenware!"

\

The red paladin sat alone in the dining hall that felt more spacious than he originally remembered. Keith was now clothed in his usual, freshly washed outfit, with his boots, belt and supply packs, jacket and all.

He fumbled with his dagger, first impatiently flipping it in the air with one hand as he waited for the breakfast his stomach beckoned, then laying it down on the table and inspecting it. He gently ran his fingertips over the length of his dagger, over every groove and scratch, then balanced it on its tip, turning it over repeatedly, his brows sharply furrowed all the while. He propped his head up with a lazy hand while nearly half of his body laid on the pristine white table.

It wasn't that Keith was bored out of his mind; quite the opposite. He struggled to remember where he'd gotten the dagger from.

Not only that, but the voice he'd been hearing kept on echoing throughout his mind, blabbering on about how worried it was about Keith like he was an injured puppy. The more it spoke, the more Keith was convinced the voice _wasn't_ Lance's. He would never bother to worry that much about anyone but himself.

The red paladin let the knife fall with a pang onto the table as he leaned back in his chair, now frustrated more than ever. His whole being filled with a burning rage and his hands balled into fists again.

Gritting his teeth, Keith swiftly took hold of that wretched dagger, and was just about to throw it across the room when the castle alarms sounded.

A robotic voice repeated caution several times before Allura's voice came on. "All paladins, except Keith, to the control room, _now_! Keith, you go back to your room and stay put!" she ordered.

"Is she goddamn serious?!" Keith exclaimed to himself, throwing the knife down with the flick of his wrist and throwing himself back in his chair.

There was no point in going up to the control room and arguing, as much as Keith wanted to. He knew his argument would only last for point-five seconds for Keith to lose and be sent to his room in the end anyhow. So he let out an angry huff, lifted himself from the floating chair, and unwillingly stomped to his bedroom, leaving his dagger and its holster on the table.

His stomach still growled and his mouth felt sandy, but he didn't feel like going anywhere but his bedroom at the moment.

\

Just as the blue and yellow paladins left the kitchen, Lance told Hunk he was going to find Keith and check on him, not caring if he got punched in the face for asking or not.

"Just tell Allura I stopped by the bathroom, if she asks." Lance said to his fellow paladin. "I'll be like, ten minutes."

"Alright, man." Hunk agreed, slightly disagreeing with Lance's decision deep down. But he decided it best to keep his mouth shut and let the blue paladin check on Keith. Lance had been concerned about the red paladin so much, it would have been unfair and even wrong to try to hold him back. So Hunk let him turn right towards the red paladin's room, as he turned left to the control room.

Several hallways down, Lance found Keith stomping to his bedroom that was just around the corner. The blue paladin could tell he was still fuming, seeing his hands balled-up, but he decided to run up next to him regardless.

All the while, as Keith heard footsteps approaching from behind him, his already flaming frustration only worsened. 'Great, here we go. Another oh-so-worried teammate running to see how I'm doing. Yep, whip out your tissues everyone, this is gonna get messy.'

"Hey, Keith." Lance huffed, meeting Keith's step.

"What do you want, Lance?" Keith stopped short and turned on his heal, barking his words at the blue paladin, anger boiling in his veins. However, Keith's "flames of frustration" seemed to have been doused ever so slightly the second he laid eyes on Lance. It was like he got punched in the head.

It felt like an eternity since he'd last seen Lance, let alone talked to him; he'd been so preoccupied with his training that he'd hardly given any of the paladins the light of day.

Keith wanted to explain everything to Lance, but his brooding frustration overtook all rational thinking and behavior. "Ya here to ask how I'm doing like _everyone_ else?" Keith spat, extending his arms out at his sides.

"No," the blue paladin lied. "I- I just wanted to…" he stuttered, trying to keep his composure.

"Wanted to what? Pat me on the back and say 'everything's going to be alright'?" The red paladin continued reigning his fire.

Lance expected him to have a sour attitude, but it was difficult for him to remain lighthearted after being turned down so quickly. The boy had been stressing about Keith endlessly, and this was how he greeted him. "Yes, Keith, I'm here to ask how you're doing. You wanna know why? Because I'm _fucking_ _worried_ about you." Lance snapped, still catching his breath from running. He leaned forward as he cursed, adding additional emphasis to his words.

Somewhere deep down, Keith was surprised that Lance had cursed, but he didn't care to react to it at the moment. "Look, I'm not in the mood right now."

"Can you at least tell me what happened?!" Lance cried his with arms out, just as the two made it to Keith's bedroom door.

Keith scoffed, his door sliding open, registering his presence. "I don't have the patience to explain anything to you."

"Keith, _please_!" Lance demanded, stomping his foot in a childish manner.

The red paladin sighed and turned to face him once more. "You're telling me no one filled you in?" he asked with his arms crossed.

"NO! Who had the fucking time to fill me in? Hunk and Pidge don't know what's going on with you either!" Lance explained, but more accurately screamed. Keith only blinked in response, his brows lightening on his forehead. "And, quite frankly, I don't _want_ to hear it from someone else." Lance admitted, bringing himself back down to- Aris. "I want to hear it from you…"

Lance looked to the side and crossed his arms, this time in an uncomfortable manner. He debated saying his next words, but they ended up slipping from his lips. "I miss your voice." he practically whispered.

Before he uttered anything in reply, Keith had an epiphany of sorts. His brows that had been furrowed on his forehead for so long finally lifted all the way, and his whole body seemed to relax. 'Voice?...' he asked himself, Lance's words finally registering to him. "Wait- what did you say?"

Lance popped his eyes back up to meet Keith's. He rubbed the back of his neck as he tried to divert attention from what he'd just said aloud. "Wh- um… I said I want you to tell me what's going on-"

"No, no. _Before_ that." Keith took a step closer toward Lance, his eyes sharply focused on the blue paladin's.

Lance's face grew hot and he could only shrug in reply, uncomfortable with the sudden confrontation. 'Before that? What could I have said a minute ago, that caused you to react now?' he asked Keith mentally.

"You said you were worried about me?" Keith recalled.

"Yeah. What of it?" Lance nodded, then shrugged.

Keith didn't dare to reply. 'Holy shit. No _fucking_ way. My mind must be deceiving me.' He told himself, finally breaking eye contact and turning his face, his brows furrowing tightly in confusion once again. 'There's no way the voice in my head really _is_ Lance's.'

Meanwhile, Lance scratched the side of his face with a raised brow. 'Well, this is certainly a turn of events.' He then remembered what he'd done to his used-to-be-manicured nails and quickly tucked his hands away, this time into his pockets.

Trying to lighten the awkward atmosphere that had fallen between them, Lance said gently, "So…? You going to tell me what's going on?"

Keith looked at him out of the corner of his eye, his heart now beating in his head; he was knocked off guard by his sudden realization. This was all too much for the young paladin to handle. How could Lance expect him to utter anything sensible?

'That Lance. He never knows when to quit… Then again… I can't necessarily say that I do. I nearly got myself killed.'

Keith shook his head and sighed hard. "Just go. They need you in the control room." He began into his room, but was quickly halted.

Lance wasn't having it. "Keith, no!" he shouted, taking hold of Keith's wrist. "You _need_ to talk to me, _please_."

Keith ripped himself from the blue paladin's grip. "Lance, now's not the time." he croaked, turning his back and stepping into his bedroom. He waited for the door to shut behind him, but a certain annoying teen stood in its path.

Keith gritted his teeth as his eyes began to water for a reason he didn't bother to place. "Lance, LEAVE!" he exclaimed into the emptiness of his room.

There was a pang of silence before Keith heard Lance swallow hard and reply with, "You're welcome."

Keith would have been surprised if he hadn't wanted to thank the blue paladin all the while.

He wanted to whip himself around and pull that doofus into the tightest embrace of his life, but he didn't. He continued to stand at the foot of his bedroom with his teeth grit and his hands balled-up in fists again. He waited for Lance to step toward him, to say something more, but he didn't. He simply stepped from the doorway and left Keith alone, like he thought he wanted.

As the automatic door finally slid shut, Keith sealed his eyes and let the river of tears that brewed finally fall down his face. With a raspy groan of pain, he crossed his arms and gripped his sides, the stress ripping at his empty stomach. He fell to his knees with a thud and cried through his teeth, gripping his head and pulling at his hair.

'Why didn't I die? I should have just died.'

'No, be grateful, you dumb fuck! Lance saved your life and you're here treating him like trash?!'

'They'd all be better off without me. I'm just creating additional problems.'

'Get your ass up and eat something! You need some nutrition; you can't live off air!'

'Who says I want to live anyway?'

The battle raged on in Keith's head. He wasn't sure what demons suddenly entered his mind and ordered him to remove himself from existence; he wasn't sure of anything for that matter.

But this much he knew: the demons were his. And only he could defeat them.

No matter how much the others tried, only he could calm the blazing thunderstorm that was his mind.

But at that instant, the red paladin didn't have the will to move from his curled-up position on the floor, let alone think.

* * *

 _Thank you so much for reading! Reviews and favorites are noticed and appreciated. :)_


	5. Volatile

**AN:** Lots of cussing and crying ahead. I know this story's been a bit depressing and angsty, but things will get much, much more interesting real soon. ;)

* * *

 **Chapter 5: Volatile**

\\\

Lance stood with his back to Keith's door for a moment before he willed his feet to move; they dragged him to the control room where he was needed. He zipped up his jacket half-consciously, hiding his mouth behind the zipper, and jabbing his fists into the pockets.

The last place Lance wanted to be was the control room. He needed to be at Keith's side. He saw how much pain his red paladin was in, and he wanted more than anything to comfort him.

But he was so sharply rejected, he forced himself forward and away from Keith's room. 'No, Lance. If that prick wants to be alone so badly then let him.' he told himself sharply. The last words Keith said, but more accurately yelled, endlessly echoed throughout Lance's head.

" _Lance, LEAVE!"_

'He wanted so desperately for me to get out of there…but how could he have the audacity to utter that to me? … I fucking told him how worried I was…but I guess I shouldn't have wasted my energy worrying.

'He doesn't need me next to him.

'Hell, he didn't even fucking thank me for saving his goddamn life … All last week, he hardly gave me the light of day … Is he really that repulsed by me?'

Lance bit his lower lip hard as he blinked a mist of tears from his vision. There was no way he was going to cry. He was sure Hunk would notice the nasty expression of sadness that came with crying the second he entered the control room, and he didn't want to be singled out. Besides, was he really going to cry over Keith, just because he wanted some time alone?

'Over my dead body. That asshole doesn't deserve my tears. Pushing me away like that, and without a second thought…'

He unzipped his jacket with vigor and stomped down the halls to the control room.

\

All the while, Keith listened intently to Lance's words. He silenced his weeping self, still curled up on the floor, and turned all his attention to the blue paladin's echoing voice.

'He wanted so desperately for me to get out of there.'

'No…I didn't.' he responded telepathically, even though he knew Lance wouldn't hear him.

'He doesn't need me next to him.'

"Lance…" he whimpered.

'All last week, he hardly gave me the light of day…'

"I'm so sorry…" He gripped his hair tighter.

'Is he really that repulsed by me?'

That drew the line. He couldn't just sit there and let Lance think such vile things. Keith sprung up off the floor and stumbled to the door. He limped around the corner, keeping one of his arms anchored against the door frame while the rest of his being drooped downward.

"Lance!" Keith croaked, his eyes shut tight, trying to contain some of the tears. "Stay…"

He waited for a response, but was met with nothing. He slowly blinked his tear-torn eyes open in hopes of seeing Lance standing some ways down the hall, but all he received was emptiness.

Lance was long gone.

Keith felt what he thought was shock for a moment before another wave of angry sadness took him over. He cried loudly from his throat, his breaths choppy and labored, as he stumbled back into his bedroom, ripped his jacket off, threw it to the ground with a jolt, and collapsed onto his bed, burying his face in the pillow.

'Quit crying, you piece of shit. This is what you get. First you tell Lance to get the hell out, and then you beg on your knees for him to come back. What is it that you want from him anyway? You're doing all of this yourself and to yourself; it's no one else's fault you're confused or hurting, and you were the one that pushed Lance away when he willingly came to check on you.

'Get a grip, you pathetic sap!' he told himself sternly. And Keith tried, so desperately to get a grip back on reality and to silence himself of his pathetic weeping.

But there was nothing he wanted more than just to cry, no matter how weak it made him seem.

\

Coran and Shiro stood around the control panel Allura manned, intently observing the readings the castle picked up about the Galran creature heading their way, whist enjoying the breakfast Coran made. Since Shiro wasn't able to read Altean, Allura narrated the statistics to him.

"Heat signature: high, skin thickness: two feet, height: 580 quartids..."

"Wait, what are quartids?" Shiro cut in.

"They're a unit of measurement!"

"Yeah, that much I figured, Coran."

"Hmm. I believe one quartid converts to one and a half of your Earth feet." he calculated.

Shiro quickly did the math. "Oh shit, that's about 870 feet!"

"That's right. Quick thinking, Shiro." Allura commented.

"Ah," he waved modestly. "Back at the Garrison, I needed to be able to do 4th level calculus conversions in my head, so simple multiplication is a piece of cake."

"Well, good for you! But there's no time for cake at the moment, Shiro." Coran stated, misunderstanding the black paladin's figure of speech.

Some ways behind the trio stood Pidge and Hunk. They too ate the biscuits Coran made as they waited for Lance to join them.

"I'm pretty sure Zarkon is obsessed with us." Hunk stated plainly with a mouthful of food.

"What are you talking about? He's not obsessed with _us_ , he's obsessed with taking _Voltron_."

"But maybe that's what he _wants_ us to think!" he inquired. "Think about it. We're a bunch of humans piloting what's allegedly the greatest weapon in the entirety of the universe! Maybe he wants to find out more about why the Lions chose us and not some other superior species. Maybe, if he does end up capturing Voltron, he wants to run a bunch of experiments on us!" Hunk rambled, and Pidge let him know.

"Hunk, you're rambling."

"No, no, just thinking out loud." he stated confidently, but quickly hunched over in defeat. "Yeah, you're right, sorry. I just hope Lance gets here soon. I don't want that Galra creature to start terrorizing any Arusions before we get to our Lions."

"Yeah, I agree. Speaking of which, where did you say Lance was again?"

"Well, I told Allura he went to the bathroom, but he actually went to see Keith." Hunk revealed in a hushed tone.

"He did?" she inquired, an expression of disbelief etched into her features.

"Yeah, I know. I told him it was a bad idea, but he went anyway."

"Ha. Imagine if he came back all bruised because Keith beat him up." Pidge snickered.

"Hey, that's not funny." Pidge's expression fell. "Coran said Keith's unstable, you know, emotionally. Don't make jokes like that."

"Oh…my bad. I didn't know." she replied, slightly embarrassed.

"Its fine. I don't really know what's going on with Keith either. Well, nothing aside from what Coran told me. But let's hope Lance found something out." Hunk said halfheartedly, feeling sorrow for the red paladin and the state he was in. Pidge nodded in agreement.

Just then, Lance walked in, his hands balled up in his coat pockets, a sour expression littering his features. He looked up and saw the other paladins waiting for him, along with Shiro and Allura giving him a disapproving, impatient look. "Sorry about the hold-up, guys." he apologized with a sheepish grin.

Allura tapped her foot with her hands on her hips, then shook her head slightly before she sighed, "Never mind that, Lance. The important thing is that you're here now."

"Right." Lance replied. 'But where's Keith when you need him?' he asked himself, but quickly shook the thought from his head.

Allura then turned toward the control panel and stated the information she and Coran had acquired about the approaching Galra spacecraft containing the creature inside. The blue paladin, half listening to her words, made his way to Hunk's side; he _was_ , after all, Lance's primary source of comfort.

"Did you tell them what I told you?" he whispered to the yellow paladin.

"Yeah, I did. And let me tell you, Allura was not happy."

"Yeah, I figured that much." he spat, still upset about his encounter with the red paladin.

"Did you get anything out of Keith? Find out anything about what the matter is?" Hunk inquired gently.

"No." he replied, furrowing his brows tightly and crossing his arms. "He didn't even want to see me, let alone talk."

"Paladins!" Allura then shouted. Apparently, she had been calling to Hunk and Lance. Pidge tried to get their attention, too, but neither of them noticed.

"Uh- Yes, Allura?!" Hunk asked, snapping into attention. Lance merely looked in her direction, his expression hardly changed.

"Were you listening to what I was saying?"

"Yes." Lance groaned, lying through his teeth.

"Yes, of course!" Hunk hiccuped.

"Clearly you weren't, since I had to get your attention by yelling." She then sighed and ordered them to get to their Lions. "Shiro will explain everything on the way there."

"Right. Sorry." Hunk apologized, both for himself and for Lance. He, Pidge and Shiro ran to their Lions as Lance dragged his feet to his, still plainly frustrated.

Coran stopped him. "What's the matter? Have a bad trip to the bathroom?" he winked, trying to cheer Lance up.

The blue paladin didn't budge. "No… It's nothing, Coran." he told him, keeping his gaze toward the floor.

"Alright…" There was something obviously wrong, but Coran didn't press on what the issue was. Instead, he offered one of his breakfast biscuits. "Here, this will brighten your mood." he smiled.

Lance glanced at the food in Coran's hand, presented to him like a gold medal. His stomach growled at the sight of it, but he was reluctant to take it. The appetite he had earlier that morning was long gone. Even so, Lance evidently took the biscuit and thanked Coran with a strained smile.

The food tasted like cardboard on the blue paladin's tongue. Lance struggled to keep it down as he changed into his armor and made his way to Blue.

He was so lost in thought his cruiser left him, causing him to mope to his Lion on foot. He half-listened again as Shiro explained the plan to take the creature down, his mind elsewhere. Once at Blue's hanger, he looked up at her with droopy eyes and sighed.

"Let's get this over with." he grumbled, taking small steps toward the mechanism.

But rather than lowering herself and opening her mouth to let the blue paladin in, Blue remained frozen. Lance noticed after he'd taken some steps. He raised a confused brow. "Blue? It's me, Lance." he reminded her.

She remained frozen still.

Lance's patience was thin after his encounter with Keith. He didn't have time for this. "Blue, come on!" he growled. "There's a Galra creature out there that needs to be stopped!"

He didn't even receive a purr in reply.

"Arg! You've got to be kidding me." he roared as he stomped his foot and flung his arms into the air.

"Lance, what's the matter?" Shiro then asked through his helmet.

"Blue isn't letting me in!" he shouted.

"Well, stop yelling and try to be rational with her."

'Right, like that's possible.' Lance thought to himself as he crossed his arms and huffed. But Shiro was right. "I'll try." he mumbled.

Lance knew exactly why his Lion wasn't letting him in. She somehow knew he was much too stressed to eat let alone fight. But, with great effort in keeping his temper in check, Lance convinced Blue to let him pilot her.

Even so, as they fought the robeast, their connection as Lion and Paladin was weaker today than ever. Over and over, Lance missed the creature when firing at it, and he'd nearly gotten blasted out of the sky by its flying orbs of lava too many times to count. Blue could sense his reflexes were slowed in his troubled state, so she went on auto pilot several times to save his sorry ass.

Shiro noticed Lance's unsteady handling of the Lion, but didn't single him out during the battle. "Just stay sharp and do all you can to weaken that beast!" he told the crew.

After many rounds of trial and error, to his surprise and the crew's, Lance was the one who ended up taking the creature down. An idea sparked in his mind in the heat of battle. "Guys! We need to cool that hothead down! He is a lava monster, after all."

"What do you think we've been trying to do, Lance?"

"Well, I'm not sure, Pidge, because you guys keep firing the blasters at it. That's only helping it out!"

Blue then took control and jolted herself to one side, throwing Lance off guard. His heart thumped through his chest.

"Stow your bickering, cadets!" Shiro ordered.

'Oh shit…' Lance then realized. 'Did I just… I freaked out at Pidge…' He knew everyone was doing all their Lions were capable of to defeat the beast, including Pidge, but he would have to apologize to the green paladin later.

"Lance, ice him!" Shiro ordered, dodging another one of his lava orbs.

He shook himself back into reality as he replied, "Right! On it!" And with that, Blue charged her ice blasters and shot them out through her mouth and tail, jolting back in the air from the force of the blast. The Galran beat froze solid in a matter of seconds, and Hunk finished it off, rocketing his Lion at the frozen form and shattering it into micro-pieces.

Everyone sighed in relief, glad their approximate three hours of fighting paid off. The sun was now high in the sky, shining almost too brightly for their eyes to handle. "Great work, guys!" Shiro congratulated. "Now let's get back to the castle and recharge with some lunch."

Sure, the battle had taken a lot out of Lance, but his appetite still hadn't returned. He hated to admit it, but it was like Keith had ruined him. Once he made it back to Blue's hanger, he solemnly thanked her for allowing him to fight. He then, slowly but surely, made his way to change out of his armor. The other paladins all turned their attention to him once he entered the room.

Shiro was the first to approach him. "Hey, Lance. What happened out there? You seemed really off today." he asked gently.

The blue paladin averted telling him the truth. "I just didn't sleep well is all." he shrugged.

"If you just didn't sleep well, then why were you having trouble entering your Lion?" Shiro pressed.

"I don't know, Shiro." Lance whined, crossing his arms and becoming uncomfortable.

"Lance, we can't have any secrets between paladins." he reasoned. "Just tell us what's wrong."

He looked up from the floor and met Hunk and Pidge's eyes before he returned to Shiro's. "Well, Hunk already knows." Shiro turned his gaze toward the yellow paladin to find him frozen still, an expression of fear on his face. "I went to check on Keith...right after Allura told us to meet in the control room." Lance then added.

At that, Shiro's attention returned to Hunk. "Then why did you lie to us, Hunk?" he asked sternly.

"It- it's not what you-" he began, but Lance cut in.

"I told him to tell you guys I was going to the bathroom." Shiro's gaze snapped back to Lance. "I didn't want Allura to scold me over the intercom. And I didn't want any of you to stop me from going." He lifted his gaze and met Shiro's eyes again. "I just…really needed to see Keith. I needed to know he was alright. But… I should have gone. He didn't want me there." he nearly mumbled, hanging his head.

Shiro loosened as he let Lance's word sink in. He tipped his head to the side as he said the blue paladin's name with sorrow. Lance went on, furrowing his brows as he spoke. "Blue didn't want to let me in because she knew I wouldn't be much help. She knew I wouldn't fly my best today with how shitty I felt, how shitty I still feel."

Shiro stopped him with a hand on his shoulder, seeing Lance's fists tighten and hearing his voice shake. "Lance, I understand." The blue paladin lifted his gaze to meet Shiro's soft eyes. "I know how it feels to worry about the ones important to you. But don't get yourself so down. Keith's head is a mess, and he just needs more time to heal. I'm sure he didn't mean to cause you any pain." Lance listened to the black paladin's words as if they were holy. His voice was so comforting.

But then he caught on to something he'd said. 'Wait, what? More time to heal?' Lance shook himself from the momentary tranquil state he was in. "Wait, more time to heal?" he asked rhetorically, crossing his brows. "Fuck that noise, Shiro!" he screamed, slapping the black paladin's hand from his shoulder. "What about me, huh?! After _I_ got out of the cryo-pod, I hardly got the chance to eat before we were right back in our Lions, off to fucking save a race of fucking rock people!" Shiro's eyes went wide at Lance's sudden change in mood and language. "Don't tell me Keith 'needs more time to heal,' Shiro, I _don't_ want to hear it!" Lance huffed, swinging his arms up then slapping them against his sides as he came down from his high.

He then turned his back to the others and crossed his arms, adding, "Everything was just fine until Keith had that heatstroke!" this time yelling to himself, trying to contemplate the red paladin's sudden shift in behavior.

"Lance McClain." Shiro then demanded sternly, taking a step closer to Lance. The blue paladin looked at him from the corner of his eye. "You take that back, right now." He ordered, looking at Lance with sharp eyes whilst pointing to Hunk.

Lance saw an expression of betrayal on the yellow paladin's face. At first, he wondered why, but then it hit him like a ton of rocks. He couldn't believe he'd forgotten Shay's importance to Hunk.

At his recollection, Lance's expression shifted to a combination of fear and worry, and he felt a stabbing at his chest. He turned back to face the lot of them, and directed his attention to the yellow paladin. "Hunk, I… I'm sorry." Lance tried, his arms out at his sides. "I'm so sorry, Hunk. You know I didn't mean-"

He was halted by the yellow paladin's hand in his face. "I know you didn't mean it. I'll let it go." He told him, his gaze on the ground. "But _only_ this time. Only because you're emotionally unstable."

Lance hated to hear those words spoken to him. He didn't think he would be this alienated from his usual self all because of Keith. But he knew he couldn't place all the blame on the red paladin. Lance's emotions were his, not Keith's.

He knew he would have to seriously make it up to Hunk later. He knew, now level headed, at least more than he was a second ago, that he'd struck a nerve in Hunk, which was no easy task, when he'd cursed out Shay's species.

Lance stood silent before Hunk, waiting for his eyes to meet his sad blue ones. "I'm so sorry…" he said through a lump in his throat.

At that, Hunk finally lifted his gaze and laughed halfheartedly. "Hey, don't sweat it. Happens to the best of us." There was the Hunk Lance knew, still forgiving as ever. The blue paladin grinned graciously.

He then turned back to Shiro. "You too. I'm sorry for- exploding on you like that."

Shiro softened at the blue paladin's apology. He couldn't be upset with him in his fragile state. "It's alright. I'm just glad you got everything out now and not while we were battling that creature." Lance ginned and nodded in agreement, looking to the side in embarrassment. Shiro then switched gears and congratulated the blue paladin. "And even if you are a bit off balance, you did something outstanding out there today, Lance. You figured out how to defeat the robeast!" he gasped, swinging an arm over his shoulders. "That's no easy task!" The other paladins joined in.

Lance knew they were praising him for his mediocre work if only to try and cheer him up. He'd just done what he thought was the most logical thing: fought fire with ice.

Among those congratulating him was Pidge. That was when Lance remembered his outburst. He smiled modestly at their congrats and thanked them before they resumed changing from their armor.

"Hey, Pidge…wait." he halted.

"Yeah?" she asked gently, turning back around to face Lance.

"Sorry about- attacking you back there. I didn't mean to. I was just- in the heat of the moment, I guess."

"Don't mention it. I know you're going through some things."

At that, Lance raised a brow and looked over at Hunk. He smiled sheepishly and stepped closer to them. "Yeah, I kinda told her some stuff. Sorry."

Lance shrugged, not bothered. "It's fine… I'm just having a hard time…"

Pidge stopped him with a hand on his arm. "You don't need to elaborate. We understand."

He smiled at them thankfully before they went their separate ways.

'I'm such an idiot.' Lance spat at himself as he changed. 'Why the hell am I letting Keith get to me like this? I was all hyped for Coran's breakfast just to have it taste like a stale graham cracker… I fought that Galran monster like I didn't know how to control my Lion… I yelled at Pidge for something she had no control over… I yelled at Shiro…

'What's happening to me?'

Lance knew very well he was a sensitive guy, but he'd never let an argument upset him this much before.

'Lance, who are you kidding? You're acting like this because Keith shot you down so fiercely.' his other half retorted.

'And surprisingly, he's got good aim.' he agreed.

He let out a hard sigh as he leaned his forehead against the wall. He didn't know what to do with himself. He didn't want to have lunch with the crew, as he didn't want Allura and Coran finding out about his encounter with Keith. They would surely ask about his performance when fighting the robeast, and he couldn't lie to them. It was like they could see right through him.

Going to see Keith again would be a total mistake…

He straightened himself as best as he could and ran his hands through his hair, trying to clear his mind. The last thing he had to dress himself with was his jacket that hung on a hook against the wall. He was reluctant to put it on; he didn't need the extra weight on his already heavy body.

Just then, door hissed opened and in stepped Shiro. "Hey, come join us for lunch."

Lance forced a merrier expression onto his face as he replied. "Sure. Be right there." Shiro nodded happily before he left him be.

Lance took his jacket and draped it over himself, leaving his arms out of the sleeves. He put his hands in his pockets as he left the room. He hated lying, especially to Shiro, but he was in no mood to be around anyone let alone eat. The only place he wanted to be was his room, alone in the darkness under the covers.

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 _Thank you so much for reading! Reviews and favorites are noticed and appreciated. :)_


	6. Paper Planes

**AN:** I recently noticed the rating of this story is 'T', so I'm going to spice things up a bit from here on out, language wise and stuff. I'm not here to dictate what you can and cannot read, but just know that there will be the use of profanity, and dramatic and (possible) intimate scenes lie ahead. You've been (sorta) warned. Alright, I'll shut up now. Enjoy!

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 **Chapter 6: Paper Planes**

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Not long after Lance left Keith's bedroom did Coran show up. The red paladin could tell it was Coran by the gentle knock at the door. "Keith?" His voice was light as a feather, but drenched in worry. "May I ask why you locked the door?"

"For the obvious reason." Keith mumbled sourly. After how he'd made Lance feel, he felt it necessary to lock himself in his bedroom, and keep everyone else out; he didn't want to unintentionally inflict the same pain on them that he had on the blue paladin.

"Just go away, Coran." Keith croaked, his throat sore and his body tired from his previous weeping. The wall adjacent to his bed supported his heavy form as he clutched a pillow to his chest.

"Nope, not a chance! Firstly, Allura sent me here to check on you," Coran began.

'Of course she did.' Keith replied mentally, furrowing his brows.

"and second: you haven't had _anything_ to eat yet. I _refuse_ to let you sit alone in your room and starve!" Coran told him sternly. In his hand, he held a plate with the last of his breakfast biscuits that got colder by the second. "Now, you're going to unlock this door and let me in, or I'm going to have to hack in."

Keith wasn't sure what he meant by "hack in" but he didn't care to find out. Coran could intimidate the red paladin like a parent all he liked; there was no way he was moving from his present location on the bed.

Keith brought his legs in close and leaned his forehead on his knees, the pillow providing cushion against his bones. A sharp tension pulled at the back of his neck. His mouth still felt dry, but the grumbling in his stomach had long ceased.

He tried to piece together why he had become so touchy about the others being worried about him, but his thoughts wouldn't come together. It was one thing for Shiro, Allura and Coran to be oh-so worried about the red paladin, but, for some reason, another for Lance to be.

Just then, Keith was pulled back into reality as his bedroom door hissed open, and Coran waltzed in. "I told you I was going to hack in." he stated proudly, but softened as he saw the red paladin's curled up form. He looked around the darkened room and saw Keith's jacket lying messily on the floor. He then wondered if the lights had broken, but quickly concluded that Keith must have turned them off, not seeing any damage done. When he brought his attention back to the paladin's face, he saw it streaked with translucent lines from his reddened eyes down to his chin. "Were you crying? What happened?" Coran inquired gently, seating himself on the edge of Keith's bed.

The red paladin turned his face away in embarrassment. "I don't want to talk about it." he huffed.

Coran slumped. That was just the response he knew he'd get, but hoped he wouldn't have gotten. He slowly reached his hand out and took hold of Keith's arm. "Come here."

Coran gently pulled Keith toward him, and the red paladin complied with his actions after a moments hesitation, leaving the pillow where he sat. Keith knew Coran was going to take him into his arms. He would have fought against it if he hadn't felt so defeated.

His body needed to be held, but his mind had different plans. 'No, don't let him hold you. What are you, a toddl-' But Keith cut his thoughts off as he melted into Coran's embrace.

He rested in the Altean's lap as he, quite literally, cradled him in his arms. Keith's mind spat at him in rejection, but he buried his face in Coran's chest nonetheless, his arms wrapping around his waist.

"Listen, Keith. You need to speak to us about what's going on with you. We aren't mind-readers. Well, Allura may be a mind-reader," he speculated. "but- the rest of us aren't." Coran felt the red paladin heave a sigh. "I'm not going to make you tell me right now. Just…know that we are all concerned about you. Always." Keith laid still, comfortable in Coran's embrace, as he absorbed his words. The Altean lowered his head and asked, as though speaking to a young child, "Okay? Promise me you'll talk to one of us, whoever you're most comfortable with?" After a moment's pause, Keith nodded in agreement.

The two then sat up straighter and Coran brought his arm around Keith. He rested his head against the Altean's shoulder, looking down at the floor. Keith was never one to talk about his emotions, but if everyone was so fully concerned about the poor guy, he needed to at least try and articulate what was going on.

"Come, let's get you washed up." Coran then insisted. He led the weary paladin to the bathroom across the hall, then left him alone to do his business. "Don't be too long!" he called through the door. "I don't want to serve you a cold biscuit for breakfast."

Keith tried to muster up a grin—Coran was always so lively; he could brighten anyone's day—but a confused sadness still loomed over him. He stumbled toward the counter lined with sinks and ran the water at one of them. The grand mirror above the sink felt like it was mocking him. 'Go on, take a look at yourself. See what you look like after you cry over your mistakes.' But he didn't dare lift his gaze.

Keith rinsed his hands and face of mucus and dried up tears, and halfheartedly brushed the grub off his teeth before he dragged himself back to Coran. He was presented with the biscuit Coran had mentioned and took it thankfully. It felt dry and plain against his tongue, but he tried to enjoy the food his stomach longed for. Then, as they neared the end of the hall, Keith realized they weren't heading back to his room.

"Where are we going?" he asked attentively.

"I'm taking you to the training deck," Coran began.

Keith stopped mid-step. "What? Why there?"

"No worries! I'm not taking you there to do any physical training. Remember that one time, when you all practiced clearing and melding your minds together to form Voltron?" It was fuzzy in his memory, but Keith nodded nonetheless. "Right. I was thinking we do a similar exercise with the headgear, one where you let you mind run free and I observe the information the gear projects."

Keith blinked in astonishment. All the while, he'd been trying to gather his thoughts to make sense of them; he didn't think doing the opposite would help, but he trusted Coran with his suggestion. He was, in fact, 10,000 plus years wiser than himself.

Keith admitted it was a clever idea, but he was fearful to let his thoughts run wild. He nibbled at the biscuit in his hand as they made their way to the arena.

Once there, Coran went up to the control center and grabbed one of the headgear, setting it to project a video representation of its wearer's thoughts rather than a still image. Meanwhile, Keith stood hunched over with his arms crossed at the center of the arena. His nearly fatal battle with the Gladiator replayed in his head over and over.

Once he finally heard Coran returning, he shook his head of the déjà vu and stepped toward the Altean. He handed the red paladin the headgear, and they simultaneously lowered themselves into a seated position on the ground.

"Now, close your eyes and sit up as tall as you can. That will help the energy in your body flow more easily." Keith nodded gently as he positioned the gear onto his head. Coran noticed Keith's strain as he straightened his back. "Good, good," he congratulated. "Now breathe in through your nose, and out the same way. Deepen your breath…fill your belly with fresh air, and clear your body of any and all tension."

Coran's soft and flowing voice worked wonders for Keith. As he breathed, he noticed that crying so hard, for as long as he did, caused his body much strain. The muscles knotted up in his neck, upper back, and even in certain parts of his face; he fought to ease the tension with his breath, Coran's narration helping tremendously.

The more Keith focused on deepening his breath, the quicker he sank into a serene state of relaxation. Soon the headgear began to glow, and Coran's face brightened at the sight. "You're doing great, Keith. Keep it up."

Just then, the gear projected an image of Lance and Keith sitting upon the wooden stairs of what appeared to be a small, old house; that image soon played a sequence of other images, at first moving in a choppy motion one after the other, but then flowing together and projecting a video. The point of view then switched from third person to Keith's, showing the memory from his perspective.

"Don't worry, buddy, Lance is here to help." the blue paladin said, looking out into the distance. There was no land or sense of space in the video playing from Keith's mind; all that surrounded the small house was a deep void of blackness with fragmented pictures, of what Coran figured were Keith's memories, floating about, folded into paper air planes.

"What do you mean?" Keith inquired, looking oddly at Lance.

"I'll be right back." Lance then said, getting up and walking into the house, not giving Keith the slightest glance.

Keith stood up and followed him in. "Lance, what are you-?" When he rounded the corner into the one large room of the house, he saw the blue paladin rummaging through a box of materials. Keith stepped toward him and told him to leave his belongings alone, when Lance somehow teleported to another area of the room and messed with the things there. He reorganized books, changed the dials on the tower of technology that stood at the corner of the room, switched the pictures and diagrams on his cork board…

All the while, Keith tried to keep up with Lance's pace and stop him from touching his things, but no matter how loudly he spoke, Lance couldn't hear him.

The madness paused when Lance took a seat onto the rickety couch under the only window of the house. "I wonder what caused him to get heatstroke in the first place…" he said to himself.

Keith sighed hard. "Lance, I don't know what you think you're doing but-"

The blue paladin was still ignorant of Keith's presence. "Was it a lack of water? Was the air conditioning off while he was training? No… It was probably because he trained for too long." Lance concluded, nodding at the ceiling.

Keith sighed again and turned his back to the obnoxious teen, his hands planted on his hips. What in the hell was this boy talking about? When did Keith get heatstroke? He's been sitting in his little shack in the desert ever since…

And that was when it hit him. What he was experiencing wasn't reality. He was inside his mind, and Lance was there messing with it. When he turned back toward the couch, Lance was gone. Keith felt his heart stop before he began to frantically look for him.

He scanned the entire interior of the little house before he swung the door to the porch steps open, anchoring himself on the door frame. He found Lance sitting there, talking to himself again. He spoke about how he hated the implicit rivalry they had, and how he just wanted it to end. "I never really hated you, Keith. Looked up to you? Maybe, sure. Was jealous of your abilities? ... Hella. It's just… You're capable of so much more than I am, and… I don't know." He crossed his arms over his knees and lowered his head as he mumbled, "I'm just tired of living in the shadows…with all the light being cast on you. Why can't we share that spotlight, huh?" he asked, lifting his head and looking back at Keith.

The red paladin blinked in confusion before he replied. "What do you mean? I never thought I was in any sort of spotlight… I'm a drop out, remember? They kicked me out of the Garrison because of my temper…" He looked to the side in shame, then locked his gaze back with Lance's as he added, "I never meant to push you into the shadows, Lan-"

"Well, it's not like you're going to answer." Lance then said, cutting Keith off. He turned his back and stared out into the blackness. "You are unconscious in the cryo-pod, after all."

Keith furrowed his brows in confusion. 'What in the hell…? The cryo-pod?' Was that why Lance was unable to hear anything Keith tried to say to him? Was his mind just replaying all the things Lance said to him while he was unconscious? It was the only possible explanation Keith could muster up.

Then his thoughts shifted to their supposed rivalry. Wasn't it Lance who said they were "neck and neck" from the very start? And now he wanted them to be linked at the elbows?

The red paladin hung his head. Nothing made sense to him.

When he looked back up, Lance was gone again. He checked on the couch for him, but he wasn't there either. Keith couldn't explain it, but every time Lance disappeared, he felt like a stray dog. The only thing that ran through his mind was 'find Lance find Lance find Lance.' He searched under the table, in the closet, even behind the papers that hung on the cork board, but there was no sign of the blue paladin.

There was only one other place he could find Lance: in the black void outside. Keith burst through the door and called out for Lance, rounding one corner of the house and then another until he was dizzy. He then climbed onto the roof and called out again. "Lance?! Shiro?! Pidge? Hunk?" he tried, his eagerness to find someone to be there with him and explain what was happening quickly draining. "Anyone?" he nearly mumbled.

Keith held his head and swallowed down the lump in his throat; he hated being unable to comprehend his surroundings. It was one of the things he feared most: losing his sense of direction and having to rely on others to help him, only to find that those others were nowhere in sight.

Just then, something brushed by his head, stunning him. It was one of those paper air planes that filled the blackness that was the sky. An image was painted onto the paper, but was ripped up and distorted by the folds; regardless, Keith could make out himself wearing his uniform from the Garrison academy. Keith reached out to catch it, but the plane slipped from his grip. He tried at it again, but the more he did, the higher the plane ascended. It kept escalating until it was far from his reach.

He huffed and gave up on that plane, focusing on another that floated around his head. He squinted his eyes at the illustration painted into it, and saw himself with Lance. Keith was hesitant to reach for it, fearful that if he did, it would float away just like the other one had. But this one seemed to be coming toward him. Once it was close enough, Keith held his hand out and it gracefully landed in his palm. He brought it closer to him and it flowered open, the image painted onto it beginning to play like a video, told from Keith's perspective.

"Lance, are you okay?" he asked the injured blue paladin, reaching his hand out as he knelt next to him.

"We did it…" he replied hoarsely. "We are a good team." Lance smiled graciously, looking into Keith's eyes.

Keith couldn't fight the smile that curled at his lips. However, it quickly faded when Lance fell weakly into his arms. "We need to get him to the infirmary." he told the others.

The memory stopped then, and the paper folded into a small square and tucked itself away into his jacket pocket.

More paper planes then floated down and teased his grasp, scribbled with various images of him as a child, of him and Shiro sharing a room together, of someone handing him the dagger he left on the dining room table... Those planes of memory were just out of Keith's reach, like that first plane he'd tried to grasp.

However, he _was_ able to catch some of the ripped-up memories: the ones of him dancing at a party amungst Hispanic people, at a friend's birthday celebrating her 15th year of life, and one of him on a grand beach, relaxing by the ocean. Keith didn't hesitate to stuff those memories into the pocket of his jacket when they landed in his hands.

It aggravated him to no end that he could only catch the paper planes that _wanted_ to be caught, but he kept on reaching, determined to catch more.

Just as he leapt to try and catch one of the higher ones, the roof cracked as his feet came back down, and caved in under the weight of his body. Keith cried as he fell for what felt like an eternity before his back slammed into the floor of his shack. He sprung up and panted helplessly, looking around at the mess the impact created, and the mess Lance left behind. Anger boiled in his veins as he gripped his hair and screamed out.

He'd had more than enough of this torture, the torture he seemed to be putting himself through. Mindlessly, he flipped the table with all its contents, then stomped over to the cork board, tacked with months' research he wasn't aware of, and ripped the pages into fragments, stomping on them and kicking them across the room, tears burning his eyes as they ran down his face.

Coran had seen enough. He shook Keith from his mind and back into reality as he removed the headgear. He called Keith's name until he stopped fussing and locked his gaze with Coran's. The red paladin's body trembled in the Altean's arms as he brought him into another embrace.

Keith hid his face in the crook of Coran's neck as the tears he cried in his mind streamed down his face. "What's wrong with me, Coran?" he pleaded, his voice muffled.

The Altean shushed him and told him not to worry. "You just need more time to heal, is all." In all honesty, he didn't know what else to tell him.

A thought then crossed his mind, and he slowly stood up with Keith and dried his eyes before taking him to the castle's kitchen.

Once there, Coran reached into the highest cabinet, and brought down a rectangular flask filled with purple liquid, about a foot tall. Keith pondered what the substance was as Coran poured him a glass of it. "Drink this, every drop of it. It will help keep you calm." he told him with a smile.

That was all the convincing Keith needed. He took the drink and downed the whole glass. It tasted, surprisingly, like a mix of grapes and raspberries, and left a warm feeling at the back of his throat.

When the glass was empty, Keith licked his lips of the excess liquid and asked for more, but Coran strictly refused. "One glass is enough, I assure you." He corked the flask closed and put it away in its previous location. "Besides, we don't want Allura finding out I gave you some of that." Coran mumbling under his breath.

"What was that?" Keith inquired.

"Ah, nothing important." he shrugged off. "Now, let's get you back to your room. You need some rest. And besides, I have to start cooking lunch!" Coran added, and led Keith back to his bedroom. It wasn't the exact place the red paladin wanted to be. He felt it necessary to find Lance and apologize to him about his earlier actions. On top of that, he needed to talk to him about what he'd just seen in his head. He needed the blue paladin the either validate or deny the actuality of his memories.

But Keith knew there was no convincing Coran otherwise. So, he obediently walked back to his room, devising a plan to put into action later.

* * *

 _Thank you so much for reading! Reviews and favorites are noticed and appreciated. :)_


	7. Strain and Disparity

**AN:** Hello everyone! Hello everyone! I just wanted to say, I plan to write 10 chapters in all. Again, terribly sorry for the long wait. Next time I write a fanfic, I'll be sure to write all of it and then post to a schedule lol Lots of cussing and crying ahead. I know this story's been a bit depressing and angsty, but things will get much, much more interesting real soon. Namely in chapter 9. ;)

(07/06/2017) Updated for grammar and format. :)

* * *

 **Chapter 7: Strain and Disparity**

\\\

After Coran walked Keith back to his room and advised him to get some rest, he made his way back to the kitchen and prepared lunch for the crew while they battled the robeast. He tried to prepare food that he knew they'd enjoy; a broth that tasted like chicken soup and something called pasta to go with it; potatoes and pork, and a fresh side-meal they called salad. Of course, it wasn't the actual thing, but regardless, he tried his best to imagine how the food tasted from the detailed descriptions Hunk gave him. Hoping for the best, he got to work with whatever ingredients were available.

\

After the battle, Lance proceeded to his bedroom, silently rejecting Shiro's invitation to join the lot of them for lunch. His appetite was long gone after his and Keith's bitter encounter, and he wasn't too proud of his performance out on the battle field either.

He dragged himself down the halls, but slowed his pace, even more so from the already sluggish speed of his feet, as he neared the hallway to his bedroom. Keith's room was right next door, and he'd hate to encounter him. He didn't need another sour look from that retched paladin.

He sighed through his nose in frustration and put his hood up, pulling it over his eyes as he quickly stepped into his room. Luckily, he made it without any interruption.

Lance didn't bother to hang up his jacket. He simply let it fall where he pushed it off his shoulders and left it there. He flicked the covers up on his bed before he plopped down and kicked his shoes off, then let himself fall onto his side.

His body felt so heavy and his muscles ached with a newfound fatigue, but he couldn't put himself at ease and get some rest; his mind still raced. He thought back to Shiro's words: "Keith's head is a mess, and he just needs more time to heal. I'm sure he didn't mean to cause you any pain." Lance really tried to believe the black paladin, but the words lost their truth the more Lance thought about them.

'If he's so distraught, then why would he push me away? Wouldn't he want my help, anyone's help for that matter?' Nothing made sense to him. Sure, Keith had been spending a lot of time practicing his combat down at the training deck and had become rather distant from the other paladins, but everything was fine and dandy between them up until three days ago.

'That damn heatstroke… I didn't know it could have such drastic effects on a person.' But he felt there was something else bothering Keith that had less to do with his heatstroke. He just couldn't put his finger on what.

Recalling Shiro's words reminded Lance of how he'd insulted Shay and her people back at the hanger. 'I was such an idiot for saying what I said. I pinched a nerve in Hunk, one of my best friends.' Lance guilted, sighing hard and burying his face under the covers and deep into his pillow.

'But how can I make it up to him, after all he's done for me? He used to bring breakfast to our dorm back at the Garrison almost every morning… He put up with the complaining he called venting without ever getting annoyed. Hell, he still does... He saved me from the missiles those Galra soldiers launched at me when we were retrieving the yellow Lion… They guy saved my life… How the hell should I repay him? With a plate of Altean cookies?' The idea sounded so pathetic, he didn't dare make it a reality. Sure, Hunk was big on food, but Lance couldn't do something so cliché as an act of apology.

'I'll save the thought for another time.' he concluded. He began to sink into the plushness of his bed, and his mind slowly shut down, the heaviness in his body taking over. But just when Lance thought he could get some sleep, it started back up again.

'Why must you be so selfish, Lance?' his mind spat. 'First you get all pissy at Keith for wanting to be left alone, then you yell at Shiro because you think he's wrong about Keith, that he doesn't need all this time to heal. Maybe you're right, he doesn't. And maybe you're dead wrong. You don't know what the fuck is going on in that kid's head. Cut him some slack, will you?

'And then you find the audacity to curse out Shay and complain about how _you_ didn't get enough time to recover, and how _you_ should have gotten all the attention Keith is getting right now. You, you, you; that's the only person that matters, huh?'

Lance furrowed his brows sharply and clenched his jaw. 'No…that's not what- I just don't understand what his problem is. I'm not being selfish, I-'

'Oh, cut the crap, of course you are. Look at yourself: you're lying in bed all depressed about what Keith said to you and about your own mistakes. Think about it, Lance. You're hurting yourself.'

Lance swore, up and down, that he wouldn't shed a tear over this stupid situation he was in, that he put himself in, but the pain he felt in his chest was unavoidable. Sobs wracked his body like thunder shook the Earth. He gripped his pillow and pulled it over his face, bawling into it.

He felt like such a burden to the team, especially Hunk. He hated talking to him about his problems, the ones that now seemed so fictitious and self-centered. He hated letting stupid things bother him to the point that it affected even the smallest of his daily activities.

Everything just ate away at him.

\

As Coran walked into the dining room to set the table for lunch, he noticed something glimmer in the light. He was surprised to see that it was Keith's dagger. The blade never left the red paladin; there wasn't an instance Coran could recall when it wasn't, literally, attached to his hip.

He raised a brow as he set down the platefuls of food he brought with him, and contemplated why Keith had left it behind. He found it with its holster sprawled messily on the table, so he figured the red paladin threw it down in a fit of rage.

Coran sighed heavily and frowned as he placed the blade back in its holster and secured it on his hip. He wished there was another way he could help Keith feel better, but he had done all he could.

After setting the table with plates, utensils, drinks and food, Coran made his way to Keith's room to convince him to eat with them. He knew very well the red paladin was in no mood to sit with people let alone eat and converse with them, but it was for his own good.

He was surprised to find the door open when it registered his presence. He thought Keith would have absolutely locked it again.

"Hello, Keith. Are you feeling any better?"

Keith had been fumbling with the fabric of his gloves, thinking of a casual way to approach Lance about everything that went on in his head, when Coran walked in. He hesitated, caught off guard at his sudden appearance, before he replied. "Oh, yeah I'm fine." he shrugged and retorted for the hundredth time, forcing his fingers to stop fidgeting.

"Think you could join us for lunch? The others are heading back to the castle presently." Coran smiled.

Keith felt the urge to turn down the offer, but he knew Coran probably put his heart and soul into the food he'd prepared. So rather than putting up a fight, he shrugged again and agreed.

"Oh," Coran blinked in surprise. "Well, that's great! I'm sure you'll enjoy what I made." Coran told Keith all about it as they exited his room and began toward the dining hall.

Keith was so preoccupied with devising the best way to approach Lance about his thoughts, he hardly half-listened to Coran as he spoke, let alone noticed the knife holstered around his hip. It was only after Coran rambled on about earth food and cooking that he brought his attention back to the blade.

"Oh yeah, I also found this on the table." he told Keith as he unwrapped the dagger from his hip. "Any reason you left it there?"

Keith still unintentionally ignored Coran's words. He was only brought back to reality when Coran nudged him with the holster. "What?" he mumbled, whipping his gaze at Coran as though he had seen him for the first time.

"I said I found your knife on the table. Why did you leave it there?"

Keith looked at the knife in his hand as though it were a needle filled with poison. He didn't want to take it back. He didn't want anything to do with it.

But he also didn't want Coran to become suspicious of him and whatever it was that was going on in his head, so he took a breath to ease some tension that built up, and took it back into his custody.

"I just…got really upset when Allura ordered me to my room… I wanted to fight the robeast alongside everyone else, but…she was right to send me there."

"Don't be so hard on yourself, Keith. You'll be better in no time." Coran reassured him as they neared the dining hall.

Keith chinned up as best he could, and secured his dagger around his belt after Coran entered the dining room. It felt foreign to him, like it didn't belong on his hip…

The other paladins, along with Allura, gathered around the dining room table, catching a poignant whiff of the food Coran conjured up; Hunk nearly drooled.

"I really hope you will all enjoy this!" the ginger-haired Altean chirped. "I took everything Hunk taught me and put it to good use." Hunk waved a stop-it hand his way and blushed when the lot of them looked his way.

"It smells amazing, Coran, and I'm sure it tastes just as good." Shiro assured him.

As the lot of them took their seats, Shiro noticed the expression of distress still lingering on Keith's face, but abstained from drawing any attention to him. If he were in Keith's place, he wouldn't want to be singled out either. He waited to address Keith until everyone had gotten comfortable and began to pass the food around the table.

"What did you do while we were gone?" Shiro asked casually.

Keith whipped his gaze over to the black paladin as though he had jabbed him in the side to get his attention. The inquiry threw him off guard; it wasn't the usual question of "how are you feeling?" that he'd been asked at nauseam. He hesitated briefly before he replied with a strained smile, "Uh, I spent some time with Coran. He…helped me level my mind a bit…"

Keith didn't want to go into detail about what happened at the training deck, nor did he want to tell Shiro he'd gone there with Coran. He would automatically think Keith resumed training, and he didn't want there to be a misunderstanding he'd have to clarify. 'Too much effort…' he whined to himself. 'Some things are better left unsaid.'

"Oh, that's good. How did he do that?"

'Geez, of course he'd ask…' Keith came up with something as quickly as he could. "We talked things out. And he gave me a drink that would keep me calm. It helped a lot."

Keith didn't expect Shiro to buy his lie. Truthfully, his mind was still occupied with ways he could approach Lance. But he didn't want Shiro to worry about him anymore. He already figured out a way to put an end to the madness of his mind.

"That's good. I'm glad it helped." Shiro smiled as he took the plate Pidge handed to him and served himself. Keith quietly sighed and hoped Shiro wouldn't press him with more questions, at least not while they ate.

And he didn't. Food quickly became a precious commodity to Shiro when he was held captive by those ruthless Galra soldiers. He swallowed anything that was offered to him when he was in shackles, even if it repulsed him. But the food Coran had made was unlike anything he had stomached in over a year. He reminisced about his life back on Earth as he cherished every bite.

After all the plates of food were passed around and he'd helped himself to everything offered, Keith practically inhaled the grub. Something popped into Shiro head and he was about to ask Keith another question, but when he saw how enthralled he was with the food, he didn't dare to disturb him.

Keith scooped up forkfuls of food until he could fit another bit into his mouth. He was so engulfed in the present situation of things, he'd forgotten all about his hunger. But his stomach roared as soon as the aroma of lunch reached him. It was like he had suffered weeks of starvation.

Shiro chucked to himself at the sight, then continued at the food. But however enjoyable it was, he couldn't shake the anticipation that Lance would walk in and join them like he'd said. After some time, he settled Lance wouldn't come.

Just then, Allura broke the comfortable silence. "Where is Lance?" She asked the question neither Shiro or Keith wanted to hear.

Keith froze at the sound of his name.

"He's not feeling well. I think its best we give him some space and leave him alone for a bit." Shiro told her and then reasoned.

"Wait, he wasn't at the hanger with you guys?" Coran inquired.

"He was, but when I asked him to join us for lunch, he was reluctant. He must have gone to his room. That's my best guess."

Allura spoke up again. "What do you mean Lance isn't feeling well?" Allura inquired, then recalled, "Come to think of it, I noticed how awful his piloting of the Blue Lion was earlier."

"I'm not entirely sure, but he said he didn't sleep well last night." Shiro informed her.

Allura scoffed. "If lack of sleep was what caused him to fight like a slob, then that is plain unacceptable." She placed her utensils down and swiftly stood up from the table, then headed toward Lance's bedroom.

As the others talked about Lance, the reality of things flooded back over Keith; he felt a tight pinching in his chest. The food he still had in his mouth refused to reach his stomach, and needed to be forced down. Everything he wanted to forget was thrust back at him, smothering his clear head with black clouds.

Even after Allura left, the heaviness in the room remained. Keith could feel the other's eyes on him, but he didn't bother lifting his head to meet their gaze.

Hunk tried to refresh the atmosphere. "I wouldn't worry about him, guys. Lance tends to get cranky when he doesn't get his beauty sleep." he chuckled.

Pidge laughed along and tried lifting the pressure in the room with him. Coran bought it, and Shiro played along. But Keith knew the real reason he hadn't shown up for lunch.

He let the food on his plate grow cold as he nibbled at bits of it, pretending he was busy eating. His appetite had vanished again.

\

Once Allura reached the blue paladin's quarters, she stepped in with haste and prepared the talking-to she meant to give him. But once her eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room, and she saw him bundled up under the covers, her mood quickly shifted. His back was turned to her, so she was unable to see his tear-torn face; but his body language spoke volumes. He looked frail and heavy.

She exhaled her frustration and approached him cautiously, with light feet.

"What's the matter, Lance? Why won't you join us for lunch?" She received nothing in reply. "You hardly ate anything for breakfast. And your piloting of the Blue Lion-"

"Was absolute shit. Yeah, I know." Lance snapped, pulling the covers over his ear, trying to hide his face.

"Can you explain why?" Allura gently urged, taking a seat on the edge of the bed.

Silence.

She huffed, trying to retain her composure. "Lance, please. One paladin being out of his wits is detrimental enough. The team can't handle any more imbalance."

"I just didn't sleep well. It's nothing."

"Lance, I'm getting the feeling that it's much more than a lack of sleep that's setting you off."

Another pause passed between them before Lance murmured with a sigh, "It's Keith."

"Are you worried about his well-being?"

"No... Well, yes but…it's… He and I... We had a bad argument. It really hurt me."

He paused and gripped the cell phone in his hand, the one hidden under the covers. "But I'm not only upset about him. I miss Earth...and my family."

Lance tried to shake his thoughts of the turmoil and drama of reality, and entertain himself with funny videos and photos he had saved on his phone. It helped until he'd stumbled upon pictures of his family before he began attending the Garrison; that caused another swell of emotion to wash over him. It made him think of how suddenly he disappeared from Earth, and how much his parents must be worried about him, hoping their boy is still alive…somewhere.

What he told Allura was a halfhearted lie. Lance was mostly upset about his encounter with the red paladin, and about his terrible performance piloting.

"When did you and Keith have that argument?" Allura then pressed, confused.

"When I told Hunk to say I had gone to the bathroom…" Lance replied dryly. "I'd actually gone to visit Keith. I thought seeing him would help calm my nerves about him…but it ended up just making them worse." Lance sighed.

Allura shook her head in disbelief and disapproval. She wondered what they argued about that had gotten Lance so down, but hesitated to ask. Lance wasn't in the proper state of mind, so she was sure he'd answer her with a word or two, or not respond at all.

She then remembered he'd mentioned Earth. "I understand your homesickness, but none of us can go back. Not now. The universe needs Voltron."

She tried at the question, since it began to nag at her. "But that aside. What happened between you and Keith that upset you-?"

"I don't want to talk about it. Please, Allura." Lance cut in again. There was a sharpness to his voice, but he sounded more pained than anything.

Shiro was right. As much as she hated waiting for conflicts to be resolved, Lance needed his space; some time to return to himself. At least now she understood why his piloting of the Blue Lion was so sloppy. She bid him goodbye, and wished him well as she lightly stepped out of the room.

'Perhaps I could ask Keith, or Shiro.' Allura thought to herself as she made her way back to the dining room.

Just as she reached the base of the stairs that lead up to the next floor, she heard pounding footsteps above her. She raised a brow and prepared herself for whoever, or whatever, was headed her way.

When the figure rounded the corner, she discovered it was the red paladin. "Keith?" she asked herself in shock.

He nearly crashed into her, but was halted by Allura's lean but powerful arms. She held him firmly by his arms and ordered him to calm down.

"Let me go!" he wailed, trying to shake himself from her grip.

\

Keith couldn't take the awkward heaviness in the room anymore. He appreciated Hunk's efforts, but it just made him feel worse. It was like the ceiling was pushing down on him. He evidently became fed up with the whole situation and threw down the fork he fumbled his food with, and sprang up.

He meant to put his plan to action when tensions had diminished, but he refused to waste any more time. The shit that had gone down between the red and blue paladins had spread and effected the entire team, to the point that no one could even enjoy their lunch. Allura and Shiro were worried about Lance, and Coran was worried about the both of them now that he'd heard Lance wasn't feeling well. A higher power knew what Hunk and Pidge were going through… And all because of him.

'All because I couldn't just explain myself to Lance. And now everyone's in this huge mess.'

Shiro called to him several times, but Keith didn't bother to ask what he wanted. He hastily made his way to the blue paladin's room to apologize and clear things up and set things right; get relations back to how they were between them. He had to; for the sake of their sanity and for the team.

He didn't have a perfect plan devised, but Keith had spent enough time organizing his words, so he had a general idea about what to say and how he would say it.

Once Keith made it to the staircase that lead to their bedrooms, he was out of breath and felt sick to his stomach. But he needed to spit the truth out.

Just then, as he rounded the corner, he nearly knocked into someone that he hoped was Lance, but turned out to be Allura.

She held him tight, refusing to let him pass, somehow knowing he was headed to Lance's room. "Neither of you are in your right mind."

"Allura! Let me go!" he roared.

"I refuse, Keith! If I let you go, you will just beat one another up."

"No, you don't understand!"

But the Altean princess refused to listen to him. She got behind him, crossed her arms over his chest, holding his flailing arms down, and took them both from that floor to the next.

It couldn't end like this. How could he have been stopped so easily? Was he really weakened that much from all the raging and crying he put himself through earlier? He refused to believe it.

He cursed Allura and her strength. He wanted to rip her limb from limb, his body flooding with rage.

* * *

 _Thank you so much for reading! Reviews and favorites are noticed and appreciated. :)_


	8. Wits End

**AN** :This is the last chapter of angst, you guys. I promise lol Also, sorry about the length. I wanted to fit a lot in and/or make up for the month long hiatus. Haha.

(07/06/2017) Updated for grammar and format. Some scenes were switched around for better flow as well. :)

* * *

 **Chapter 8: Wits End**

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As angry as the red paladin was at the Altean princess, he didn't care to lay a hurtful hand on her; it took everything he had, but he managed to contain himself. She carried his squirming form to the lounge down the hall from the dining room, and threw him onto the couch.

With a huff, she exclaimed, "Why were you headed to Lance's room?" Keith turned his head and growled in anger. "Answer me, Keith!"

"Shut _up_ , Allura!" he yelled without a second thought.

She ignored his hostile tone, not afraid of him in the slightest since she could easily overpower him. She didn't have intentions of hurting him, however, since she knew the erratic state his mind was in. "Were you trying to pick a fight with him? When did you and Lance even interact? And what did you two talk about that got him so upset?"

Allura paused between questions, waiting for Keith to uncross his arms and respond with something other than a scruff sigh, but she received no answer. "Keith, talk to me, _please_!" she exclaimed again, her patience running low.

"It's between me and Lance! I _won't_ tell you, Allura." Keith barked. "I just wanted to go and talk to him to find out what's wrong, and to apologize to him, but your stubborn ass won't _let_ me!" he snarled at her.

Truly, Keith didn't know why Lance was still upset at him. He would have known what was going on if he were still able to hear Lance's thoughts. He didn't exactly know when, but he lost the ability a few hours back; he believed it happened after his session with Coran and the Thought Projector back at the training deck.

But right now, he didn't care to place when it happened. He just wanted Allura off his back.

The princess huffed in defeat and stuck a hand on her hip, holding her other hand over her forehead, trying to retain her composure. It was clear Keith wasn't going to fill her in on anything. 'I'll just have to approach Shiro about it. Perhaps he will know something.'

She tried to collect her mind and tell the red paladin something that would reach him through his anger. She joined her other hand with the one already on her hip and spoke sternly, nearly glaring through Keith. "Just keep in mind that you're part of a team. Without you, Voltron cannot be formed. If I were you, I'd hurry and get myself together."

With that, Allura turned her back to him and proceeded out of the room.

Keith let out a hard sigh and sank into the couch, his arms crossed over his chest again. 'Who does she think she is?' Allura's last words completely alluded him, as though his outrage deafened him.

'She can't fucking tell me what to do.'

" _Why were you headed to Lance's room?_ …" he mocked to himself. 'As though she can really stop me… What, does she plan to chain me to my bed?'

"Smh…"

'And she has the audacity to carry me here like I'm some little kid, and throw me down like a rag doll.'

Keith shook his head, offended and angered by Allura's actions more than ever, and swiftly stood up from the couch. He ran back to Lance's room, faster this time than the last, but didn't find him there; just his jacket sprawled messily on the ground, and his bed empty, the sheets ruffled.

\

The situation was so difficult to accept.

Once Allura made it back to the dining room, she found Shiro, Hunk and Pidge gathering the plates of food, cleaning up after lunch. Her eyes immediately searched for Coran, since he was the one who usually took care of such things.

She approached Shiro and asked where the other Altean had gone.

"He'd become really concerned about Lance, so he took a few plates back to the kitchen and went to check up on him." Shiro informed her, his voice painted with shades of gray. She could tell he wasn't pleased with the situation either.

Allura sighed in defeat again, this time more vigorously than before, and looked away from Shiro. She went to pick up a plate to help clean up, but Shiro halted her. He placed a hand atop hers and looked her square in the eyes when she met his gaze. "What happened?" he inquired, referring to her encounter with Lance.

"You were right; he needed some space. I tried, but I couldn't get him to tell me anything."

"I figured…" Shiro sighed.

"But, after I left, I bumped into Keith." That brought Shiro's attention back up. "Well, 'bumped'…more accurately, he nearly crashed into me! He was practically flying down the stairs!" she explained with emphasis.

"So that's where he was heading..." Shiro murmured to himself. He then asked, "What happened with him?"

"Well, I scanned his head once I grabbed hold of him, and discovered he was rushing to Lance's room. But… Keith was so full of anger, he couldn't have been going there to kiss and make up. I tried to calm him but he was all fussy, so I took him to the lounge and tried to get through to him; find out why he was really going to see Lance…but he refused to tell me anything as well."

Shiro's face twisted into a puzzled expression. "Huh… From how Lance told me, he and Keith got into a pretty bad argument-"

"Oh, yes! I meant to ask you about that!" she jumped, startling the black paladin. Hunk stopped in his tracks at the sound of her voice as well, nearly dropping the several plates in his hands; but Pidge ushered him on.

Allura giggled "Sorry," before her voice returned to a serious tone. "Lance had mentioned it. He said he'd gone to see Keith just before you all went to fight the robeast."

"Yeah..." Shiro scanned the room before he spoke again. "At first I was shocked Hunk lied to us about it, but Lance explained it was a cover up."

"Did he tell you what they argued about?" she then inquired. Allura was tired of waiting and wondering.

Shiro paused for a moment and thought back, but couldn't recall Lance explaining the contents of their argument. Allura huffed, frustrated all over again.

Shiro placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Don't stress about it. I'll find out soon enough. This has gone on for far too long." he said with determination.

"And its effecting the whole team." Allura highlighted. "There cannot be any more friction between paladins." She turned to face him straight-on. "Promise you'll handle it."

"You have my word, Allura." Shiro smiled sincerely.

Feeling somewhat relieved, she took the last few plates from the table and headed to the kitchen with Shiro. There, they met up with Pidge and Hunk.

Something came to her mind just then. Allura gathered the lot of them closer to her and spoke sternly. "Shiro and I both agree that the tension between Lance and Keith has gone on for too long, and that it has effected _everyone_. Can you agree?" She directed her attention between Pidge and Hunk. After they shared a glance, they nodded in agreement.

"Good. So, I ask this, from you all." Allura's gaze met the paladins'. "Keep a watchful eye. If anything occurs between them again, or even if you have the slightest suspicion of it, report it to either me or Coran, and we'll handle it. I refuse to let this go on. We have greater problems to worry about."

Allura met everyone's eyes, and each paladin nodded sternly, understanding her order. After loosening the atmosphere some and chatting a bit, everyone went their separate ways, having personal things to take care of. Hunk and Pidge walked together in silence for some time.

"Man… I didn't think things between Lance and Keith would escalate to this." Pidge then said, breaking the silence.

"I know, me either!" Hunk hiccupped, anxiety lacing his voice. "I just don't know what went wrong. I feel bad asking Keith since he'll probably get really annoyed."

"Yeah, I'm sure he's been asked a thousand times what the matter is…"

Hunk nodded. "And I don't want to ask Lance about it because Shiro said he needed some space…"

"But, maybe he will come to you. Doesn't he usually vent to you when he's stressed?" Pidge reminded Hunk, trying to ease his tension.

"Well, yeah…but he usually vents to me about small, minor things. This is…well, a big problem. Its effecting _everyone_ , apparently."

"Well, yeah, it is. We weren't even able to have _lunch_ as a team…" Pidge frowned. She enjoyed the meal Coran had conjured up as much as the next paladin, but it didn't taste the same with Lance missing. Then when Keith sprung up, the atmosphere in the room only became worse, which diminished their appetites further. "If we can't do that, how can we battle the Galra, or do anything together?"

Another pause of silence passed between them. "I just hope you're right." Hunk then said. Pidge raised a brow. "I hope Allura is just exaggerating. I hope Lance _will_ come and vent to me…"

\

Lance became even more uneasy when the shouting from down the hall reached his ears.

Allura and Keith were having a vicious argument. Apparently, the red paladin was heading to his room to pick a fight—that's what Lance could make out of their screams, anyway—so he was glad Allura caught him before he had the chance to.

He buried his face under the covers and deeper into his pillow, trying to drown out their voices. As worried as Lance was for Keith earlier, that concern had faded. He'd given up.

'What's the point in trying to mend relations between us if Keith is just going to spit in my face again?'

He didn't want to think about it. He didn't want to think about anything anymore. He was just…so tired.

Lance wasn't aware when, but he'd drifted off into a dreamless sleep. When he woke up, he wasn't as refreshed as he'd hoped to be, but that was probably because his nap had been cut short.

"Lance? Are you awake?" a familiar voice asked him gently.

Lance looked over his shoulder and blinked Coran's blurry face into focus. He grumbled to himself and let his face fall back onto the pillow.

"Oh, don't be like that." the Altean chuckled. "It's only three in the afternoon. There are still so many vargas left in the day."

The nap may not have reenergized the drowsy paladin, but Coran's voice could liven anyone. Lance took a deep breath in as he stretched himself, then asked, "What did you wake me up for?"

"I wanted to see how you were doing." Coran told him honestly as he turned his seated form to face the paladin.

Lance raised his brow in confusion. Had he heard him right? "Me? Oh, I'm fine…" Lance choked out, avoiding his worried gaze.

"I heard otherwise from Shiro. He said you said you needed some space, so I assume something is still bothering you-"

Lance cut Coran off like he had Allura. "I don't want to talk about it, Coran."

He remembered how Coran noticed his upset state earlier that day, when he and the others headed to their Lion to fight the robeast. That's why he assumed something was "still" bothering him.

Lance silently pleaded he'd leave him alone about it. No matter how hard Lance tried to hide his emotions, he knew it was something he just wasn't good at. So, it was natural for Allura, and now Coran, to be worried for him. But this sort of attention was embarrassing to Lance.

He didn't want to vent to anyone about his issues anymore. He wanted to have a face-to-face with Keith, and that was it. There was no way the blue paladin was going to budge. He refused to.

"Well, alright then." Coran sighed. "Could you at least come and get something to eat? Not much is left from lunch, so there's no point in saving it. Besides, fresh food always tastes better." Coran tried to sound as cheery as he could.

Lance's appetite hadn't returned, but he figured he should get a bite to eat. If not for himself, then for Coran.

So with that, Lance lifted himself into a seated position and agreed to go with Coran. The Altean cheered merrily, then helped Lance up after he'd slipped his shoes back on. He let Lance walk before him, trying his best to keep a light grin on his face as he watched Lance carry himself. It was an awful sight. Coran hoped a hearty meal would help him feel better.

Just then, he caught sight of Lance's jacket splayed on the ground. The blue paladin had walked right past it. Coran figured he was still distraught, so he bent down to pick it up. "Let me get this for y-"

"Leave it," Lance cut in when he caught sight of Coran. "it's not like I have company coming over, anyway." He nearly mumbled the words.

Coran's grin fell and he sighed to himself. "I suppose you're right."

The air of the silence between them was so stiff, it was hard to breathe.

When they made it to the kitchen, Coran prepared a plate of everything he'd made. Lance's drooping expression remained over his features, but after the Altean reheated the food and the smell reached him, Lance's eyes brightened up. As soon as Coran placed the plate before him, he couldn't shove the grub in his mouth fast enough.

"Holy shit, Coran!" he said with his mouth full to the brim. "This is _unbelievable_!"

The ginger-haired Altean chuckled as he watched the expression lift on Lance's face; he practically packed food down his throat. Coran felt pride in himself for making a meal the Earthlings really enjoyed; so much so that it could shift their moods completely.

\

Keith nearly screamed when he saw Lance's room empty. 'Not _again_! Where the hell could he have gone!?' his mind roared.

He had reached his limit. The red paladin was so fed up with it all, and didn't know what else to do to keep himself calm. Suddenly, he remembered what Allura had said to him: "If I were you, I'd hurry and get myself together." He couldn't recall when she'd said such words, but he'd heard them regardless.

But it seemed there was no way down from this high. Nothing but rage flowed through his veins; his body shook.

He really hoped the elixir Coran secretly gave him would've helped, 'But it ended up doing jack shit. "One glass is plenty…" Yeah, right…' Keith pulled himself away from the blue paladin's room and headed for the kitchen. He needed more of it.

That elixir was his last hope at acquiring sanity again.

\

Coran let Lance digest the food as he washed the plate after him. He then inquired, "So, do you still mind telling me what you and Keith argued about?"

The pleasant feeling of fullness and the satisfied smile on Lance's face was quickly washed away when Coran posed the question again. Did he really need to know? Couldn't it just be left alone?

But Lance didn't want to sound petty, or give kind Coran any attitude, so he quickly thought of a way to distract him from the subject. "It was nothing, really. I was just in a bad mood. All I needed was a good nap."

Coran arched his brow, slightly doubting Lance's answer.

"I feel better now. Anyway, I've been wondering: do you think the castle could send some sort of message back to Earth? I want to contact my family." Lance fumbled with is chewed-down nails as he finished his sentence, but quickly shook the looming cloud of sadness away and looked back up at Coran.

"Um… Actually, I'm not sure." Coran replied, puzzled by the question.

"Oh, then, maybe Allura will know." Lance hastily suggested.

"Yes, she might…"

"Awesome! So how about this: you go ask her about it, and I'll go see if Pidge knows a way to contact Earth. Sound like a deal?" Lance hardly let Coran blink after the question before he spoke again. "Alright, cool!"

He rose from his seat and backed out of the kitchen, snapping finger guns of gratitude Coran's way before he added, "Thanks Coran! You're the man!" and he went on his way to look for Pidge.

Coran shook his head, genuinely confused by what had just happened. It was an odd question to ask amid everything, but he supposed Lance had his reasons for wanting to get in touch with his family. Coran would have wanted the same, given his family members were still around.

Coran shrugged it off and went looking for Allura so he could ask her about Lance's proposition, but also to assist her with anything she needed.

Lance huffed, hating the awkward tension Coran kept creating between them. But he knew it wasn't Coran's fault; most of the credit went to Lance, since he was the one who went to see Keith and started this mess in the first place.

The blue paladin knew he still needed to make some sort of amends with Keith, but at the moment, he just wanted to avoid him. He wanted to retain this feeling of lightness, and he thought bumping into the red paladin would certainly wash him of it.

And for the first time that day, he wasn't worried about Keith. Right now, he simply wanted to get in touch with his family and let them know he was okay. Just that. Then he would figure out how to deal with Keith.

\

After rounding every corner with hair-pin turns, Keith made it to the kitchen and scanned the cabinets on the wall, trying to remember which one held the elixir; but he couldn't recall. Still aggravated from the previous happenings, he jumped onto the counter and flung open all the cabinet doors until he finally located the flask on the top shelf, where he had seen Coran put it last.

He grabbed the flask with shaking hands, nearly dropping it several times, before he came down from the counter and hastily popped the bottle open. Keith didn't bother to get another cup before he drank more of the elixir; he just needed to calm down, ASAP.

But just as he was about to put the bottle to his lips, he froze. 'What am I doing? I shouldn't be drinking more of this. I don't even know what it is.' something inside him reasoned. 'I'm…going insane…'

He leaned on his elbows against the counter and grabbed his head with his free hand; the other was still gripping the flask firmly. The breath escaping his lungs was frail and shaky, just like his hands. 'I shouldn't drink any more of this… For all I know, it could be poisonous to humans… Then again, why would Coran give it to me if it were poison?'

His conscience tried to get him to find another way to handle the rage, but the anger in his veins continued to flow. It prevented him from thinking any clearer.

But at the very least, it stopped him from drinking the elixir out of the bottle. Keith grabbed the nearest glass and filled it to the brim. He took a swift swing and absorbed every last drop. But it wasn't enough. His body still shook. He poured another, but this time drank slower and in greater gulps than the last, thinking that would help in some way; then slammed the cup down, and held his head with both hands, leaning over the counter.

He listened to the ticking of the clock on the wall as he waited for the potion to work, waited for it to finally stop his shaking and ease his mind. 'If this shit doesn't help me…nothing will.' he told himself.

\

Lance searched for Pidge all over the castle, naturally stopping by her room first, figuring she would have been there. But it turned out she wasn't. He then tried to find her at the lab, then the training deck, since he knew she was trying to learn the Altean language, but Pidge was nowhere to be found.

Lance doubted she would be at the Green Lion's hanger, but he headed there next. When the door opened, he found Hunk tinkering with the control panel that reviewed the Lion's mechanics and such.

Hunk stopped what he was doing and turned his attention to Lance. He told him what he was working on when he'd asked. "Pidge asked me to check her Lion. She felt it running funny during the battle." Mentioning the battle caused Lance to remember how crappy his piloting was, and how he'd insulted Shay and her people afterwards. He meant to think of a way to make things up to Hunk…but he hadn't gotten around to it.

Lance's expression drooped and he apologized instinctively. "I'm sorry for saying what I said about Shay back there."

Hunk's expression dropped at the mentioning as well, but he shrugged it off. "It's alright. Like I said, you're forgiven. I know you didn't mean it."

Lance nodded and curled his lips into a smile that didn't reach his eyes. He still felt so stupid; he kept a mental note to think of a better apologetic act.

"Anyhow, what are you doing around here?" Hunk then asked, turning to face the blue paladin. "Are you feeling any better? D- did you come to vent about something?" he urged energetically, hoping he would say yes to the latter question.

Lance was glad he hadn't been asked what the matter was. "I'm better, thanks. And, no, I'm not here to vent, but thanks again." Hunk's energy faded some at the sound of that. "I'm actually looking for Pidge. I wanted to know if she knew a way we could contact Earth."

"What for?" Hunk inquired, genuinely curious.

"I just…" Lance didn't know how to phrase it, since he didn't want to talk about the fact either. "Well…we left without leaving a note or anything, you know? I just wanted to let my family know I'm okay." he shrugged. "Hell, we _all_ could contact our families if Pidge or Allura could find a way to." Lance highlighted.

"Yeah, we could. All of us accept for Allura, Coran and Keith, though…probably…" Hunk said without thinking. Once he caught on to his words, his eyes widened, and he slapped a hand over his mouth. "Oh shit…" he said from behind his hand.

Lance nearly burst out laughing, but he managed to keep it in. Laughing at orphans wasn't exactly polite. "Well, you're not wrong. Probably." he replied, a grin threatening to curl at is lips. A chuckle wanted to escape his throat, but he swallowed it down. He didn't know why such a sensitive topic wanted to make him laugh, but it didn't matter to place the reason presently.

"Anyway… Would you have any idea where she could be?" Lance then asked, referring to Pidge.

"Oh, yeah. She told me she was going to be on her laptop at the lounge. She told me that her room is messy and she's not in the mood to clean it, so she went to the lounge to avoid doing so." Hunk informed Lance, then shrugged at Pidge's reasoning.

"We all have those days." Lance chuckled, then thanked Hunk for the information and bid him goodbye.

\

After an eternity of forcing breath deeper and deeper into his lungs, something began to shift. His muscles stopped twitching and loosened up, and his breath didn't have to be forced in and out of his throat.

Once Keith was sure the drink had taken some effect on him, he lifted himself and stood up straighter. He paused for a moment to make sure his head wasn't still spinning, then took a grateful breath in and let it out though his mouth.

He was finally relaxed.

'But just to be safe.' he poured another glass of the elixir before he capped it and put it back in the cabinet.

His mind so at ease, Keith didn't know what to do next. He needed to get out of the kitchen, that was for sure. If Coran came by and saw another glass in his hand—or if anyone came by for that matter—they would immediately start questioning him, and he'd be in deep shit all over again.

With the glass in hand, he made it to the kitchen's exit and debated whether to go left or right. If he turned right, he'd head toward the dining hall, and if he turned left, he'd be directed toward the lounge. Neither area seemed the ideal place to be, but Keith didn't care to be picky.

His feet ended up taking him to the lounge where he found Pidge intently typing away on her laptop. She'd hardly noticed his presence when he walked in. Keith greeted her with a small "hey" as he took a seat next to her to peek at the screen. Only then did she acknowledge him.

"Oh, Keith. Hey, how are you?" she asked with a little smile.

"I'm good. Better than I was." he nodded, then inquired, "What are you working on?"

She turned her attention from him and back to the screen then. "I'm learning Altean. I downloaded the program from the panel at the training deck onto my computer. So now I don't have to walk all the way down there to practice."

"Oh, I gotcha. Nice." he grinned, taking a sip of the elixir.

"Whatcha got there?" Pidge casually inquired, hearing him take the sip, her eyes still glued to the computer screen.

"A cup." Keith replied plainly.

Pidge stopped typing for a split second and looked up at him. "Yeah…" she dragged. "What's in it?" She then noticed his cheeks flushed pink ever so slightly, and raised a questioning brow.

"I have no idea." Keith admitted with a shrug. "It's something Coran offered to keep me calm. I was really upset earlier and- stuff..." he huffed, not wanting to bring up the recently passed events.

"Hmm…" Pidge hummed quietly to herself, debating whether to comment about the color on his cheeks; but she decided not to ask any further questions. "Well, I'm glad that drink is helping you out." she said before resuming her work on the computer.

Keith grinned happily and nodded to himself. He was elated that the potion was helping him out. He took another sip of it and swallowed it slowly. Its raspberry flavor and the warm tingle that lingered at the back of his throat pleased him.

The room fell quiet then, and Keith closed his eyes, enjoying the comfortable silence. He didn't mind the sound of Pidge's fingers on the computer's keyboard; there was a sort of rhythm they created as they tapped away at the buttons.

But that comfortable silence quickly evaporated from the room when Lance stepped in. When he caught sight of Pidge where Hunk told him she'd be, he sighed gratefully and grinned. "There you are. I thought I'd never-" Lance stopped himself when he noticed Keith in the room. "find you…" he finished, disappointment lacing his voice.

Keith straightened himself up at the sight of the blue paladin, and his mind began to race again. He recalled his mixed-up thoughts and memories and that he wanted to ask Lance about what they meant…but he couldn't bring himself to speak. Lance didn't seem interested in him in the slightest.

Pidge stiffened when Lance had walked in. "Oh, hey Lance." she said tensely, but tried her best to hide it.

The blue paladin walked over to Pidge and took a seat next to her as he spoke. "Whatcha working on?" he asked bubbly.

"I'm just practicing some Altean. What's up?" she asked, taking a break from typing. The thickness of the air between the three of them made her feel uneasy. She could tell Lance was deliberately ignoring the red paladin.

"I just wanted to know if you knew a way we could contact Earth. I wanted to let my family know that I'm okay…"

Pidge blinked a few times, slightly startled by the question. "Lance, I'm flattered that you think I would know how to create or work such technology…but I'm sorry to say, I don't think that's possible. We're billions of lightyears from Earth. No frequency is strong enough to reach that great a distance."

"But…what about the technology the castle has? Allura can contact us from our Lions no matter how far we are."

"Well, that's true, but the only reason she's able to do that is because our Lions share that same technology. Earth doesn't have the same frequency receivers that Altean technology does."

Lance tried to think of a way around the hurdle, but two and two quickly came together, and he knew there was no chance for him to contact his family. His expression drooped and his body became heavy all over again. "Oh, I understand. Well, thanks anyway, Pidge. I'll see you around." Lance mumbled with his head hung as he proceeded out of the room.

He knew Keith was glaring at him as he left; he could feel his violet eyes piercing the back of his head. But he didn't stop and turn to address him. Lance wasn't going to approach Keith first. He had reached out to Keith before, so now it was his turn to reach out to Lance.

But the lounge wasn't the right place to talk things out. Lance didn't want to tell Pidge to leave—that would have been rude—and he could tell she was already uncomfortable with them in the same room as her. So, he continued out.

Keith couldn't stand the ignorance he was receiving. It was unlike Lance to ignore someone, and so plainly at that. What happened to the paladin that was so worried about him?

Keith needed to tell Lance he'd been looking for him all over, like Lance had been looking for Pidge. He needed to talk to Lance and apologize and finally figure out what was going on in his head…for the sake of the team, at the very least. Keith tried calling to Lance to get him to stop and address him, but nothing he said reached him.

He didn't know why, but his feet wouldn't move him forward toward Lance. It was as though there was a force keeping him away, like the force that repelled two magnets.

Before Keith realized it, the door exiting the lounge shut, and he and Pidge were the only ones in the room again.

\

After the door closed behind him, Lance let out an organic stretch and a hard sigh. All this gloom and tension was weighing him down, and frankly, he was sick of it.

Lance thought about doing something he enjoyed for a change. He then thought to scout for Shiro and ask if he wanted to join him in practicing a bit of yoga. The activity always made Lance feel better, and it helped them both clear their heads.

As he had done when he'd been searching for Pidge, Lance made his way to Shiro's room to see if he was there. As he rounded the corner, Lance found him walking in his direction. "Oh, Shiro!" he called from down the hall.

Shiro was glad to see Lance in a happier state of being, but upon seeing him, he remembered what he'd promised Allura. However, it didn't seem right to press the question at that moment. He didn't want to bring Lance down and make him feel depressed all over again.

Instead of asking the question, Shiro waved and called back to the blue paladin.

"Hey, I was just looking for you." Lance told him when they came closer together. "I was wondering if you wanted to do some yoga with me."

Shiro pleasantly agreed, and the two went to change into more comfortable clothes. They agreed to meet up at the Observatory, a room with a grand window for a wall, overlooking the landscape of outer space; that was where they usually practiced the activity.

Shiro made sure to keep a mental note and ask Lance what he and Keith argued about afterwards. He figured after yoga, Lance would have winded down enough to explain what happened.

\

Keith's brows furrowed, and anger threatened to boil in his veins again. He looked down at his hand for the elixir, but remembered he'd left it on the couch where he sat. He needed more, but didn't want to chug it down his throat like a maniac in front of Pidge.

Keith managed to steady himself and get the glass before he bid Pidge goodbye, telling her he needed some fresh air.

But the red paladin had no plans of going outside. As he marched back to the kitchen, he gulped the rest of the drink down, noticing his anger rising again. Once there, he threw the cup into the sink and climbed up onto the counter, swiftly grabbing the flask of elixir before tucking it under his jacket and making his way to his bedroom.

* * *

 _Thank you so much for reading! Reviews and favorites are noticed and appreciated. :)_


	9. Patch Work - Friction

**AN:** FYI (for your information), chapters 3 through 9 take place within one story day. Let that sink in lol poor guys. I feel bad for torturing them so lol Updated 08/11/2017. Minor edits done toward the end. I added a song!

Anyhow, just a heads up, or as you can already tell, this chapter is MAD LONG. It is the longest chapter I've written in this story and I am very shocked I wrote so much tbh. I thought about splitting it into two parts, but then decided to give it two titles. The titles are labeled, and there is a split in the story, you'll see it. Also, I don't like odd numbers and wanted to keep 10 chapters to this story. So here you go, one long ass chapter of over 9K words.

Take your time and enjoy! I will be working on chapter 10 for the next few weeks.

* * *

 **Chapter 9: Patch Work / Friction**

\\\

 _Patch Work_

Keith locked the door behind him once he reached his room. He dared someone to come by and disturb him. That would give him a reason to release his frustration.

He kicked his shoes off and practically ripped the holstered dagger from his belt. The blade still felt foreign and even heavy on his hip. He threw it to the far corner of his room, then leaned back against the wall of his bed and popped open the flask.

He vigorously gulped the elixir until the suction caused the bottle to bite his lip, then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and leaned his head back.

The situation felt so stupid… What happened between the red and blue paladins could have so easily been avoided, but ended up escalating and effecting the rest of the team...so much so that Keith wasn't sure he could even call the lot of them a team anymore.

But he didn't want to think about it. Keith was sick of the twisting, black clouds of angry confusion in his head. He took several more gulps of the potion, loving the way it glided down his throat. It continued to ease him of stress.

After some time, Keith's mind turned to mush, and he could hardly recall his own name. He capped and put the bottle next to his bed and laid on his back. He practically sank into the cushions of his bed, the darkness of his room only adding to his drowsiness, and at some point, drifted off into a restful, dreamless sleep.

\

The dimmed lights and the soft purple glow of the room should have helped Lance destress, but instead, it became increasingly difficult for him to ease his body of tension as the yoga session went on. Lance narrated the poses at the start, but a lump grew in his throat after some time and he asked Shiro to take over. He agreed to without question.

Lance tried to accept that he couldn't reach his family; he really did…but he knew they were worried sick about his disappearance.

It felt good to sweat a bit and to stretch his muscles, but he still felt like he was holding on to something. He couldn't feel any lighter; it was like the yoga poses weren't doing their job and rejuvenating his body. No matter which way he bent—not in Child's Pose, not in Downward Dog, not in Warrior One, Two, or Three—he couldn't shake what nagged at him, like his younger siblings when they'd tug on his shirt for his attention.

And he knew exactly what it was. He'd been trying to muffle the present situation of things between him and Keith, which he knew was unhealthy, so it was no wonder today's yoga session felt off.

The weight of everything hung over him like an oncoming tsunamic wave.

He only felt worse when Shiro brought things up afterwards.

"If you don't mind me asking," the black paladin began, already knowing Lance would most definitely mind him asking, but he proceeded regardless. "What exactly happened between you and Keith?"

Lance sighed and hung his head. He hugged one leg close to his chest, resting the other down on the mat. "Honestly…I don't even know anymore, Shiro… I went to see him because I was really worried, and…we got into a stupid argument, and… I guess I just wanted him to…thank me or something."

"Thank you?" Shiro inquired gently. "And what exactly did you argue about?"

"Yes, thank me. Ya know, for saving his damn life. I mean, not in a huge way, but… No one else knew how to treat heatstroke… And if we waited for Allura to get to him… I don't know…

"Maybe I'm being selfish…" Lance mumbled. He didn't mean to ignore Shiro's other question, but his mind wondered off.

"It's not that you're being selfish, Lance. Keith has been a bit…unapproachable lately." the black paladin assured him. There was certainly nothing selfish about being worried for a fellow teammate. "But, in the same breath, I think you're going to have to take action first."

"Me? Why should I? That's exactly what I've been trying to _avoid_ , Shiro. I'm sure Keith isn't down to play nice and make up, anyway. When Allura caught Keith after she came to my room during lunch, he was heading to pick a fight with me! And for what?!" Lance exclaimed, fed up with the red paladin's pathetic attitude.

"I don't know…" Shiro sighed in thought. "I don't think Keith would suddenly jump up from his seat at the table to go and pick a fight with you."

At that, Lance fell silent. "What do you mean?" he eventually inquired.

"Well, back in the dining hall during lunch, Allura asked where you were, and Keith seemed…I'm not exactly sure how to put it. He seemed like he was really enjoying the food, but when the princess mentioned you…he just- _froze_." Lance glared at Shiro and intently listened. "It was like he remembered about everything, and… I think he was heading to your room to apologize is what I'm trying to explain.

"It was after Allura had left to talk to you that Keith left the table, so, you're right, he was heading to your room. But I highly doubt he was heading to pick a fight." he speculated.

Lance sat on the mat awestruck. This was definitely news to him. 'Have I been wrong about Keith the whole time?' he pondered.

But he wasn't going to be so easy to convince. He wanted evidence that Shiro's words were true. "Well… I trust you Shiro, but…do you know that for a fact?"

"Well, I have to admit I _don't_ know that for a fact. But I still believe Keith was heading to talk things out with you, regardless of how reckless he seemed to be."

"Did Allura tell you anything?" Lance dove deeper.

"She said she scanned Keith's head when she stopped him and discovered he was heading to your room, so I guess she _assumed_ he was heading to pick a fight, judging by the way he was acting. She also said he refused to tell her what the issue was between you two."

Lance hummed to himself, absorbing Shiro's words. "I understand where you're coming from. And I do want to agree with you and that Keith may have been heading to apologize to me… But…at the same time… I'm still hesitant about approaching him first… It seems like he's… _repulsed_ by me or something…" Shiro's face drooped at the sound of that. He was about to counter Lance's statement but the blue paladin continued. "I mean, I understand that if we don't make up, we may never be able to form Voltron again, and that we may not even be a _team_ if things come to that…"

"Exactly, Lance." Shiro said gently, careful not to sound too stern in Lance's fragile state. "You know what's at stake here. If you two don't make up, essentially, you're putting the lives of _billions,_ and the fate of the whole known _universe_ at stake." he highlighted.

"I know, Shiro." Lance nearly groaned. "Thanks for adding to the pressure." he laughed cynically.

\

When Keith woke, he felt so relaxed, he needed to force his muscles to move. He kicked himself for waking up; he was really enjoying his nap. The red paladin then noticed his mouth was sticky with sweetness, and a dull flavor of berries lingered on his tongue. A grin curled on his lips when he remembered about the elixir.

Sitting himself up, he took another swing and refreshed his tongue with the rich potion. His mind was still mush. The one thing Keith was conscious of was how smoothly the elixir flowed down his throat. A warm heat spread from his stomach to his ears.

But suddenly, he didn't want it all for himself. He wanted to share the feeling the elixir gave him with someone, and he knew just the person.

Keith dragged himself off the bed and practically limped over to Lance's room next door. Once he made it, another thing came to mind; he remembered about his thoughts and memories, and how he speculated some of them weren't actually his. He needed to talk to Lance about all that, before he forgot again.

"Hey, Lance! Ya in there?" Keith called as he neared the door. He didn't receive anything in response, and wasn't exactly thrilled when he discovered Lance was nowhere in sight—again. But this time, rather than throwing a tantrum, Keith let out a hard sigh and shrugged. "Aw, well… Maybe next time…"

He felt curious then. This was his first time in the blue paladin's room.

He stepped in and looked around the darkened room. Keith wondered by the lights were shut off, but the thought quickly passed. He noticed the room was slightly larger than his, which he found unfair and groaned to himself about. It smelled of something fresh, like the stuff the male professors wore back at the Garrison.

"Lance wears cologne?" Keith mumbled to himself. He imagined the other paladin stepping out of the shower and dousing himself with the scented solution. A sloppy grin curled at his lips at the thought.

As Keith walked around the room, he also caught whiffs of lavender and mint and vanilla. The scents made it hard for him to concentrate; he nearly forgot why he was in Lance's room in the first place.

His foot then got caught on something, which turned out to be Lance's jacket. Keith wondered why it was lying messily on the floor. "C'mon Lance, have some decency." he said to the empty room as he picked it up.

He mindlessly dug around in its pockets, not looking for anything in particular, but stumbled upon a set of blue earbuds. He perked up at the sight of them. "Oh sweet, maybe I could listen to some tunes." he mused.

He dug around in the other pockets for an mp3 player or a phone or something, but didn't find anything of the sort. Keith groaned and lost hope of enjoying any music as he dropped the jacket. Just then, something on the bed glimmered in the light from the hallway, and Keith stepped closer to get a better look. It was a cell phone. He picked it up, hoping there was no password, but when he swiped to unlock it, the passcode log in came up. Keith sighed in frustration, but then thought, 'Maybe if I plug in the earbuds…'

He put the buds in his ears and stuck the end piece into the jack at the top of the phone. The screen shifted to show a rewind, play, and skip button with a bar under it to adjust the volume. A box with a music note came up under it, and once the phone chose a song to play, music flowed from the speakers of the buds into Keith's ears.

He smiled widely and laughed like an idiot, shutting his eyes as he danced his way out of Lance's room and back into his.

Once he made it, he opened his eyes again, and was met with white light. The lights above him were near blinding. Keith couldn't recall them being so bright when he was in his room a few moments ago. He blinked rapidly, trying to get his eyes to adjust as he stepped over to the control panel next to his door and mashed the buttons, blindly trying to diminish the brightness of the lights.

Eventually, he shut them off completely, but managed to leave a warm, aquamarine hue cast from the glowing strips of light on the walls. Keith crept his eyes open once he noticed a change in brightness, and scanned the room. The soft teal glow cast by the florescent lights pleased him, and Keith quickly became absorbed in the music that poured into his head.

He closed his eyes again and swayed to the rhythm.

Most of the music that played from Lance's phone was pop, EDM and alternative rock; bands and artists like Fall Out Boy, Panic! At The Disco, Green Day, Twenty-One Pilots, Beyonce, Calvin Harris, and Nick Jonas just to name a few. Keith enjoyed whatever song came on, but he really loved the songs that pumped a steady but electrifying beat; he jumped around his room and swayed his hips through the whole of every song.

Whenever he needed to take a breather, he'd shake his shirt to create a draft and take more gulps of the elixir as the music continued to play. Every now and then, he'd overdo things a tad and take his shirt off to wipe the pools of sweat that slicked over his body like a waterfall, and lay on his bed to catch his breath, shirtless. But when he'd cooled down too much and got cold, the sweat-spotted shirt came back on. The air conditioning in his room was working overtime since his dancing produced great amounts of heat and made the room warmer.

As the Hispanic music played, Keith imagined himself at a grand beach party filled with hundreds of equally sweaty attenders, the shifting lights he saw behind his closed eyes playing tricks on him. Somewhere off in the distance he could hear the ocean waves kissing the sandy shore.

\

The two tried to find other things to converse about, but eventually a heavy silence fell between them. Lance stood up and folded his yoga mat up before he excused himself to his room.

Shiro sighed and sat in thought, alone in the Observatory. 'I still don't know what exactly they fought over, but at this point…I don't think it matters. I know Lance will step up and approach Keith and they'll work things out…eventually. He's knowledgeable to know he has to.'

The black paladin felt stupid sitting by and waiting for them to make up, but he didn't want to force anything either. He gathered himself and his mat and went on his way, trying to find something to do to occupy his mind in the meantime.

Lance took his time walking back to his room. He knew the seriousness of the situation long before Shiro or anyone emphasized it to him. Lance knew he'd need to approach Keith first to put this case to rest. But he didn't want to right now. He knew he was stalling again, as though he had all the time in the universe to make up with Keith, but he suppressed the responsibility regardless.

He needed to make things up to another paladin first.

Lance changed out of his flexible yoga clothes and back into his usual ones, then picked up his jacket from the floor and fluffed it of dust. He then dug in his pockets for his phone so he could text Hunk and ask where he was, but it wasn't there. Lance crossed his brows in confusion, then thought back and remembered he'd left it on his bed when he went to have lunch with Coran; he searched but couldn't find it in the sheets either. He took a moment to think where else he could've left it, but nothing rang a bell.

The blue paladin sighed in annoyance, but shrugged it off. 'I'll just ask Hunk if he's seen it when I find him.' he told himself as he fixed his sheets and went on his way. Lance wasn't in any rush anyhow.

•

Lance eventually found Hunk in Pidge's room, toying with her computer, trying to adjust its settings and make it more compatible with the Altean learning system she installed on it. Lance had asked about his phone, but neither of them had any idea about where he could have left it. He hummed to himself in confusion, but put it off to the side.

After some time, Pidge and Hunk asked Lance if he'd made any progress with Keith, but he didn't want to talk about it like before. "I'll go make nice with him later. He needs to cool his jets before I come near him."

Lance then turned to Hunk. "I was actually looking for you." The yellow paladin stopped what he was doing and looked up at him. "I wanted to…do something more than just say 'sorry' for insulting Shay. I just…feel like shit for saying all that."

Hunk glanced over at Pidge and they both smiled warmly at the blue paladin. "Lance, like I said before, I understand you didn't mean to say any of that. You're already forgiven. But, if you still feel that bad, you can hang with us. Maybe the three us can surprise everyone with dinner later."

If that was what Hunk wanted, then that was enough for Lance. He smiled in relief.

"Oh, that'd be a great idea. I could put my Altean to use and quiz myself. And probably help you guys figure out what ingredients you're using and such." Pidge then stated merrily. Hunk and Lance both agreed they'd need her help.

The trio reminisced about their days back at the Garrison as Hunk continued to work on Pidge's computer. When he finished, they journeyed to the kitchen and conjured up dinner as planned. Lance and Hunk drooled over Cuban and Hawaiian dishes they'd enjoyed back on Earth, and debated which to try and recreate.

Lance wanted to make a dish similar to Ropa Vieja with Cuban-styled shredded beef, accented with green olives and capers. Hunk wanted to incorporate something Hawaiian into the dish Lance suggested, but decided to go with just making the Ropa Vieja and something to go along with it, since Lance was the one having a bad time today anyhow.

Pidge put her knowledge of the Altean language to work, reading off ingredient labels to them as they mixed and mashed things together. Next, they needed to figure out a way to cook it all. Luckily, Coran swung by and helped them out.

Since the food wouldn't take too long to cook, they helped set the table with plates and utensils like Coran had done earlier for lunch. Things had finally calmed down, and honestly, it made the paladins slightly uncomfortable. The trio became so used to being on their toes whenever necessary, which was most of the time, that any down time they got felt strange.

Regardless, after the food was ready, Coran called the others for dinner over the intercom. Lance, Hunk and Pidge took their seats as Allura and Shiro greeted them, and Coran brought the food to the table.

They all noticed Keith's absence, but waited for someone else to point it out first.

Eventually, Allura spoke up. "Does anyone know where Keith could be?" she inquired, her voice foggy with disappointment.

"The last time I saw him was at the lounge. Then he said he was going to take a walk outside or something." Pidge informed her.

Lance sighed to himself and rolled his eyes. 'It doesn't happen often that we get to spend some quality time with the team, and Keith, of course, has to be wandering around somewhere.'

Allura crossed her brows, puzzled, and brought up a large monitor on the wall above the entrance to the dining hall. "Scan the perimeter." she ordered it. The screen displayed live video feed from each camera wired on the outside of the castle, but Keith was nowhere to be seen.

The room went tense with suspension and confusion. Shiro hoped Keith hadn't wandered off anywhere too far.

"Maybe he went back to his room?" Pidge then suggested.

"Perhaps. But this monitor is unable to show us live camera feeds from within the castle. We must head to the control room to access those."

So, with much reluctance, they all ventured down to the control room, Hunk nearly crying over the food getting cold, and Lance bluntly displaying his annoyance, crossing his arms and audibly huffing repeatedly.

Once they made it, Allura commanded the computer to show her Keith's bedroom. To hers and everyone's surprise, the video showed the paladin dancing away to music that played from a device in his pocket.

Shiro raised a brow at the sight and spoke stiffly, concern swimming in his voice. "Keith…doesn't dance." he choked out. He couldn't believe his eyes. "He and I shared a dorm room back at the Garrison, and he never danced to music. He'd bob his head at most." he informed them.

"Hmm…" Allura hummed in thought. "I think I know what caused him to start dancing so suddenly."

Lance raised a brow at her statement. "What do you mean?" He figured she knew more than he did, since she had greater abilities, but he still wanted to know what she was speculating.

Rather than addressing his inquiry, the Altean princess stepped toward Coran. "Hand me a communication device." He saluted her and walked over to the control panel. From there, he summoned the device Allura asked for. What she did next threw Lance off.

She approached him with vigor, causing him to swallow hard, then handed the paladin the walkie-talkie looking device and said, "Go tell him to stop dancing, or he may overheat and have another heatstroke."

"Wha- why me?" the blue paladin hiccupped.

"Because you two _need_ to make amends, and because he has _your_ personality in him. Now don't argue and go." Allura told him sternly.

"Wait, _what_?" Had he heard her correctly? Lance looked around the room for an answer as he shouted without thinking, "Guys, what the _fuck_?!"

Shiro was the first to respond. "Lance, watch your language!"

"No, Shiro. Don't give me any of that. It's been three days and no one has bothered to tell me what the hell has been going on with Keith. Now Allura up and says he's got some of my personality in him, like I'm supposed to know what that fucking means!? You can't expect me to be calm about this, Shiro!"

Allura's gaze met the other's as she scanned the room. "None of you told him?" she asked the lot of them, then focused on Shiro.

He shrugged but replied honestly. "I'm sorry, Allura. I couldn't- I didn't know _how_ to explain it to him."

Coran then stepped forward. "Don't feel guilty, Shiro. I'm the one at fault. I should have told Lance about everything from the start."

Allura then cut in. "Coran, stop. We all know I'm the one to blame. I was the first to know about the disarray in Keith's mind." She stepped closer to the blue paladin and explained it all: how Coran accidentally placed Keith in the same cryo-pod Lance was in, and as he healed, some particles of Lance's being seeped into the red paladin. This, in turn, caused Keith's mind to become mixed up with Lance's thoughts and such. "I believe the crossing of your personalities is what has been causing Keith to behave in such irrational ways, as well."

Lance gaped at the princess as her words reached him. He eventually turned his gaze away and stood there staring at the floor, shocked beyond comprehension.

"I apologize about informing you so late." Allura told him solemnly. "But, what I still don't understand is why you won't just go to him and talk things out."

"What do you mean?" Lance blinked.

"He told me he was heading to apologize to you after I had left your room. I recon you heard all the commotion from down the hall?"

"Yeah… Wait, wha- you stopped Keith from apologizing to me?"

"I wasn't aware that he wanted to make peace at first. He was so jumpy, there was no way I believed he could think rationally. It was only after I had brought him to the lounge that he told me he wanted to go apologize."

Lance brought a hand to his forehead. 'You've got to be kidding me with all this…' He took a breath to gather his thoughts before he spoke. "Okay, I hate to do this, but this is entirely your fault, Allura." he spat, turning his gaze to her.

The princess was slightly offended by his tone, but she knew he was right. She hung her head and looked to the side.

Lance continued. "Do you realize that if you hadn't stopped Keith, this whole goddamn mess would've been solved hours ago!?" Allura hardly got the chance to take a breath to defend herself before Lance was back at it. "I've been sitting here thinking Keith hates me for saving him, and that he's being an ungrateful shit about everything— and then I hear that he's been trying to apologize to me?"

Shiro stepped in. "Lance, you know she's sorry about all this. There's no need to yell." he reasoned.

"No, Shiro, there is _all_ the need to yell. All this is _news_ to me, I've had it all wrong! That's why I'm yelling, okay!?" He paced around the room and huffed, shaking his head in disbelief.

The others stood silent, not knowing how to calm Lance down. He'd just have to pace this one out, they supposed. Eventually, Lance cooled off enough to take the communication device from Allura and begrudgingly make his way down to the red paladin's room. If the lot of them wanted him to approach Keith first and make amends then fine, he would. But only to shut them up.

However, Lance's attitude shifted the closer he got to Keith's room. He began to worry that the paladin could have another heatstroke like Allura speculated, and that this one would be worse than the last and he would _completely_ loose himself. The faster his feet moved, the more worry built up inside him for Keith.

Lance then became sour and resented the red paladin for making him worry. 'You're really a bonified dumbass, Keith. Lying about your location and then dancing like an idiot after waking up from a coma the same day.' But however annoyed Lance was, he was still worried about him having another episode, so he continued on.

Allura also gave him a device to open the door with, in case Keith decided to lock himself up again. But he didn't need to use it. Keith set his door it to stay open when he was mashing buttons earlier, trying to dim the brightness of the lights.

* * *

 _Friction_

The blue paladin stood frozen in the doorway as he stared at the jiving paladin. Keith's eyes were closed since he was so absorbed in the music, so he hadn't noticed Lance. But he felt the need to conceal himself, just in case Keith caught sight of him later on. He stepped behind the doorframe and poked his head out, wondering why in the hell Keith was doing this.

The more Lance watched, the more separated from reality he became. He forgot how to breathe several times as he watched the red paladin through the open door. His hips swayed in figure-8's as he jived and snapped his fingers to the beat of the music Lance couldn't hear, one sequence of moves gliding effortlessly into the next. Keith was normally so stiff and angular and reserved. It was like seeing a thick slab of metal suddenly become malleable and be bent in every direction. Lance hardly noticed his missing shoes and jacket, thrown carelessly onto the floor.

To add to the display, the fluorescent lights on the walls made the room glow with everchanging color. Lance figured they were synced up with the music Keith was vibing to. He gazed at Keith as his jet-black hair reflected the lights and whipped and bounced around his face. It was almost too good to be true. 'Am I really seeing this?' Lance asked in disbelief.

He had seen girls, and boys alike, dance wildly at the one Annual Dance the Garrison held to celebrate the successful cadets that went off on explorations and achieved great things and such. That was what the dance was _supposed_ to celebrate, anyhow. Most of the Garrison students, like Lance, only attended for the free food and drinks, and to get freaky in a steamy crowd of people, with minimal amounts of clothing on at that. Their outfits could only show so much skin, but everyone made sure it was just enough to get others going. It was the one day at the Academy that the students could wear what they wanted, so they took full advantage.

'Then why…' Lance thought to himself, 'why does seeing this...'

He tried to place how seeing Keith dance the way he did gave him a different feeling.

Just then, Lance noticed something. Keith danced mostly freestyle to whatever music he was hearing, but from time to time he would swing his hips and slide his feet and position his arms in a way that reminded the blue paladin of traditional Cuban dances his grandparents taught him. Lance crossed his brows and wondered how Keith could have known those types of dances, then recalled how Allura set the cryo-pod to focus on healing his brain more than his body.

His train of thought and confusion quickly faded when Keith gave his hips another swing and his hair another toss.

Lance felt another wave of heat swell up from his gut, and he bit his lip as he pinned himself against the wall. Clicking the communication device on, he huffed, "Guys, I can't go in there."

"Why not, Lance?" Shiro asked with slight concern.

"I just can't. My…curious side will show."

Shiro face-palmed. He knew exactly what Lance was referring to. "Listen Lance, stow your sexuality for just a few minutes and stop Keith from dancing. He can't exert himself this early on, he got out of his coma this morning."

A trail of sweat ran down Lance's temple as he stuttered, "But-"

"Lance, no but's."

Lance closed his eyes and contemplated for a moment before he peeled himself off the wall, fluffed his jacket by the collar and stepped into the doorway of the red paladin's bedroom; there, to his surprise, he was met with a rosy-cheeked, sweat-spotted, glistening Keith.

"Hey," he greeted with low eyes. "Come to join me?"

Lance blushed madly, but managed to push some of the ever-swelling heat to the side. "First of all, why did you steal stuff from my room?" he asked as he swiped his phone and earbuds from Keith's hand. The red paladin frowned at Lance's actions.

"Secondly, Allura said-" That's not how Lance meant to start his sentence. "She sent me down here because- you're not supposed to be exerting yourself...yet..." That wasn't much of a save either. He was practically stammering the whole time.

Keith didn't immediately respond to Lance's words. Instead, he tipped his to one side, stretched his arms out and scooped the blue paladin in a tight embrace. Lance stood tense with his hands at his sides, confused out of his mind. "I'm sorry for yelling at you earlier. I didn't mean any of it." Keith mumbled into the crease of Lance's neck.

The heat from Keith's breath briefly distracted Lance from his halfhearted apology, but once the paladin's words reached him, he tucked his belongings into his jacket pockets and returned the embrace after some hesitation, disregarding Keith's sweaty shirt.

It felt so odd holding him so close, but Lance wasn't going to push Keith away or tell him "okay that's enough." The paladin could stay in Lance's arms as long as he liked.

But he still needed to get him to sit down. "You know…you really should stop dancing. Allura said its not good for you to be exerting yourself-"

"Yeah, yeah…I heard you." he groaned, pealing himself from Lance. "Pfft… Allura can talk." Keith sassed as he turned his back to the blue paladin.

"What?" Lance blinked.

Keith spoke over his shoulder. "Look, I appreciate everyone looking out for me, but...I don't know. I can't go down to the training deck to practice my form, otherwise I'll get yelled at by Shiro and Allura and Coran and whatnot...so I decided to jam out instead. But, apparently, I can't do that either." Keith slouched as he huffed in frustration before he caught sight of his reflection and quickly became absorbed in it.

He admired himself as he sensually wiped pools of sweat from his face with the back of his bare hands, Lance noticing the instant he caught sight of them. The blue paladin would have searched the room for Keith's gloves if he wasn't so enthralled in the show he was putting on. Keith then peeled up the end of his shirt and used the fabric to wipe the sweat away, looking at Lance with warm eyes through the glass.

Once they made eye contact, Lance forced himself to look away. He tried to compose himself as best he could and fight the waves of heat in his body. "I… never said you couldn't listen to my music, just that... Don't go taking my things, dude." he shrugged, trying to shake some of the bugs in his stomach.

"I would have asked first, but I couldn't find you anywhere." Keith explained with a pout as he tipped his head to one side and turned on his heals to face the blue paladin. His shirt was still rolled up in his hand.

The look of innocence in Keith's eyes was uncanny, and Lance really needed to force his gaze away this time before the heat in his gut swelled up again.

He took a deep breath before he continued. "But- Shiro said you never liked to dance." Lance recalled. Keith only shrugged in reply, not looking in Lance's direction.

"What does Shiro know?" he then said with a sharpness in his voice. He lifted his gaze again and met Lance's eyes. "Just because I never danced in front of him…" he began as he took baby steps toward the blue paladin. "doesn't mean I don't like to…" His hands met Lance's navel and his fingers tugged at his shirt. "take part in the activity at all." He was dangerously close now, causing the swelling fire inside Lance to erupt. He could feel his face heat up with 100 shades of red, and he instinctively lifted his hand to shield his face out of embarrassment.

He pushed Keith back lightly as he turned to the side, trying to cool himself off. "Keith…" he huffed, running a hand over his face in shock. He wanted to say, "take it down a notch, man, you're killing me" but instead changed the subject. "I need to ask you something."

Keith frowned and whined, "Can't it wait?"

"N- no, it can't." Lance told him as sternly as he could. 'Because if I wait then I won't ask you at all.' Lance knew another distraction was inevitably underway.

He plucked Keith's fingers from his shirt with a swift gesture and spoke sternly. "What's this business about you having 'particles of my personality' in you?" he asked, quoting Allura.

The red paladin's face contorted in confusion momentarily before he nodded in understanding as to what Lance was asking. "Well..." he began. "What do you _want_ me to say?"

Lance blinked. "I'm not following."

"Who told you I had some of your personality in me?"

"Allura. Then Coran explained everything."

"Okay, so what else do you want to know?" Keith asked impatiently, but the drink Coran advised him to have kept him calm, like he said it would. His fingers gravitated back to Lance's shirt and fumbled with the fabric as he waited for him to reply.

The blue paladin wasn't sure how to respond. What else _did_ he want to know? Keith had no real idea what was going on himself, so asking any sort of questions about his state of mind was rather pointless.

"Nothing..." he finally mumbled. "I was just confused. Hell, I still am!" He threw his hands up and slapped them down at his sides in a sort of defeat.

He then noticed Keith playing with his shirt again. Lance grimaced and slapped his hands away, groaning to himself as he lightly blushed and turned to the side, crossing his arms. Keith chuckled, enjoying how much he annoyed Lance. He lifted the end of his black shirt again, revealing his belly button for a split second before Lance turned back and stopped him. "Would you quit it?!" he blurted as he pulled the red paladin's hands apart.

Keith laughed with his mouth wide, slightly startling Lance. "What, am I showing too much skin for ya?" he giggled, tripping over his feet as he stepped closer to the paladin.

Lance reddened at the words, then helped steady Keith with a hand on his shoulder as he tripped. "Wowh! Uh… What's gotten into you, Keith?"

The warmth of Lance's hand caused his shoulder to tingle and a fire to light in his stomach, crawling up from the small of his back and up to his neck. It was a strange feeling, a foreign one, and Keith was unable to decipher it.

All he was interested in were those gleaming blue eyes, their color amplified by the glowing lights around the room.

Keith swooned in reply by accident. Something snapped in him then, and he kicked himself mentally. 'Keith what the fuck?! Get it together!' But his body had other plans.

"C'mon, Lance. One more song. Dance with me." he said softly, biting his lip.

Lance knew something was off. _Very_ off. Keith was so relaxed, he let his guard down and was completely vulnerable. It was like he wasn't Keith at all. Lance blushed madly when the paladin's glowing eyes met his, sweat gathering at his temples. He leaned back in a sort of precaution.

Then something else caught his eye. A glimmer of light reflected off a glass bottle on the ground, Keith's missing gloves lying beside it. Lance furrowed his brows, wondering why Keith had it in his room, but his thoughts were quickly cut off when Keith scooped Lance's neck into his hand.

When Lance looked back at the red paladin, he saw him nearing his face at a staggering rate. He felt his heart stop, and his breath became choppy as he tried to think rationally. He yelped and managed to catch Keith by his wrist and slip himself out of the paladin's intended path. He kept Keith's arms far from his body.

To avoid another close encounter, Lance quickly went over to the bottle and picked it up, examining it. "What is this?"

Keith answered nonchalantly. "It's something Coran gave me to keep me calm. It works like a charm!" He smiled a messy grin at Lance and walked over to him, tripping over himself a few times.

Lance kept his hand out, ready to catch him if he fell. "How much did you drink? And are you sure you're even supposed to be drinking this?"

"Yeah, its fine. Coran gave it to me himself." It was a halfhearted lie; Keith had taken the _whole_ flask himself. "Try some." he added, lifting Lance's hand to his mouth.

One taste and Lance immediately knew what the drink was. "Keith, this is alcohol! Well, something similar to it, anyway." He recalled smelling something odd in Keith's breath when he laughed in his face a moment ago.

"Alcohol?" Keith sounded out in confusion.

"You couldn't tell?!"

"No, I never had alcohol before! Well, as far as I know, anyway."

Lance then remembered, 'That's right…he isn't entirely himself. He probably can't remember much about anything…'

"But who cares?" Keith went on. "Just dance with me, Lance." The paladin laughed and reached into the other's pocket, grabbing his phone and resuming the music. Lance capped and threw the flask onto Keith's bed and tried to snatch his phone back, but by that time, Keith already got what he wanted.

Lance tried to douse Keith's flames of excitement, but he couldn't help himself. The other paladin wanted so badly to dance to "just one more song," so Lance agreed, if only to shut him up and wipe that stupid smirk off his face. The pop group DNCE's song _Body Moves_ came on and played from hidden speakers in the ceiling and on the walls. Lance really had to fight the urge to break into dance; it was one of his favorite tunes.

But he wondered how Keith would dance, since he could hardly walk; he'd tripped over himself twice already. Surprisingly, the red paladin was able to do all sorts of dips and spins and trick with his feet, all while lip syncing to the song no less. Lance quickly became awestruck.

Keith knew just how distracting and enticing he was, and he made sure Lance lost all sense and reason as they danced to the music. He kept a dialog going as he swayed, dropping hints as he mouthed the song.

" _What's on your mind?"_ he whispered through the music, his eyes low as his gaze swam in Lance's eyes. " _Cause what's on mine's a dirty mind. Why so serious?"_ he chuckled.

'This can't be happening. I must have snorted something before I came here. That's the only explanation.' Lance mused in disbelief.

" _Just take my hand and hear the words I say_." Keith did a spin to the beat and stretched his hand out, inviting the blue paladin to dance with him once more.

Lance took his hand after much hesitation, and Keith quickly pulled him in close. " _You gotta know, you gotta know that I'm feeling this_." He grinned and instinctively grinded his hips against Lance's and dipped backwards, holding onto the other's shirt for support before he whipped himself back up and echoed the lead singer's, _"Ow!"_

Lance meant to support Keith's back as he dipped so he wouldn't hurt himself, but the paladin didn't know where to put his hands since he'd never danced with anyone but Hunk like this. He didn't know where it was okay to touch and where it wasn't. But Keith let him know in a heartbeat.

He rolled his shoulders and brought Lance's hands to the small of his back, which was a little too low for the blue paladin's comfort, but he wasn't arguing. He knew his intention to wipe the grin off Keith's face backfired; it only grew wider as the song progressed. Lance was hesitant to continue dancing to the song, but the beat seeped into his bones, and the warmth of Keith's body and his glowing eyes quickly put Lance in a deep trance.

It was as though Keith were casting a spell on him; one he didn't want to come out from.

He subliminally mouthed with Keith, " _Oh baby, let it loose_." and Keith laughed like a maniac, ecstatic to see the blue paladin was finally easing up.

" _I don't need it, but you know how bad I want it."_ Keith sang into Lance ear as they jived together. _"And your touch has got me haunted, but I like it_."

Lance shivered and hid his face in Keith shoulder, blushing a deep red.

Naturally, as the song progressed, Keith's actions only got worse. He kept on singing into Lance's ear and trying to run his hands through his hair and peel off his jacket. The blue paladin brought Keith's hands away when they came too close or touched a part of Lance that made him weak, but the paladin was only able to control so much.

Keith still swayed and grinded his hips against Lance freely; he was hesitant to reach his hands down and push them away, for fear he'd grab something else.

Keith noticed Lance tense up when he tried to touch him more intimately; every time Lance did, the red paladin would take his hands and shuffle to the beat, forcing Lance to do the same. Once he had relaxed, Keith was back at it again, trying to take his jacket off and touch his seemingly soft, brown hair. "Come on, Lance. Aren't you hot in that big ol' thing?" Keith teased.

"Shut up…" Lance mumbled as he plucked Keith's hands off him, unable to form a constructive response.

The red paladin kept the game up as long as possible. " _Show me more, a little more, it's getting scandalous_." he half sang, half laughed as he rolled Lance's shirt up. The other paladin blushed and shook his head, laughing to himself without meaning to.

" _Baby the stars above will light the way_." Keith went on, dancing and singing with his eyes closed, the changing lights keeping him lost in the song.

Lance gave him a twirl, then sang, " _Just take my hand and hear the words I say_." Keith giggled and interlaced his fingers with the other's. Lance noticed and blushed deeper as he went on, " _When the morning comes, I'll always stay."_ He brought a hand back to the small of Keith's back. " _You gotta know, you gotta know that I'm feeling this."_

The chorus then repeated for a second time, and Lance really let loose. They no longer stayed in one spot of the room; Lance brought them around the entirety of it as he swayed and dipped and rocked Keith to the rhythm, pulling him in and whipping him out, spinning him in circles and shuffling to the beat as the drums, bass and tambourines played steadily.

The song then slowed, and Keith used that time to wipe his sweat and catch his breath. Lance held him close, absorbing his expression and keeping his hands on the small of his back as he liked. "Isn't this fun, Lance? Aren't you having a good time?" Keith laughed like a kid on Christmas, already knowing the answer.

Lance nodded and replied solemnly. "Yeah…I am."

The song kicked back up then, and Lance was the first to lip sync this time. He and Keith jived to the beat without a care. " _Come and roll with me, we'll rock them body moves_."

Keith laughed with his mouth wide again, then popped his brows up in an insinuating motion and bit his lip, liking where things were headed. " _I don't need it, but you know how bad I want it!  
And your touch has got me haunted, but I like it!" _Keith nearly shouted.

The two breathed in each other's faces as the song went on. It wasn't until the end that Lance lost all control over his actions. " _Come and roll with me, we'll rock them body moves_ _ **.**_ _Me and you_." he huffed, grinding Keith's hips against his as he swung them in figure-8's.

" _Y_ _eah, just a little bit_." Keith echoed.

" _Body moves_ …"

" _Just a little bit!_ " the red paladin whispered, trailing his hands up Lance's navel to his chest. Lance would have stopped him if he wasn't busy melting to his touch. Keith's bare hands were so soft and warm, goosebumps speckled the blue paladin's skin. Their faces were so close they breathed the same air; Lance rubbed his cheek against Keith's in a sort of adoration and held him close as the red paladin gently ran his hands over Lance's abdomen.

Lance tried to hold back, but ended up nearly pouncing onto Keith as the song came to an end. Another song played in the background, telling a story about sugar ( _Sugar_ \- Robin Schulz) and how it got the singer "so fly;" something along those lines. The lights continued to change color, but the only thing either of them were interested in was each other.

Lance pulled him close and trailed hands up the red paladin's back under his shirt as he buried his face in the crook of his neck. He pecked small kisses onto Keith's hot skin, loving the droplets of sweat that lingered on his lips.

He heard Keith breathing heavily through his nose; he must have been biting his lip. 'You can only hold your voice down for so long, Keith.' Lance told him mentally. He then reached up and subconsciously pulled Keith's shirt down over his shoulder and kissed his collar bone and the tender muscles around it. He felt Keith's hot, uneven breath against his ear, and tingles shot down his spine.

Keith bit his lip hard, trying to contain the moans that threatened to escape. Lance's refreshing scent didn't help in the matter. At the same time, he thought to return the favor and help Lance's jacket off; they both radiated heat like a boiler. Keith slowly inched it off as it was hard for him to concentrate on even the simplest activity with Lance breathing down his neck.

The blue paladin took over and ripped the jacket off, throwing it to the side like a useless rag, then quickly bringing his hands back to Keith. He held him close and gripped the back of his shirt, working his way up and down both sides of Keith's neck as he held his face and tangled his fingers in his moist, black hair.

As badly as he wanted to hear Keith enjoy himself, he was hesitant to try anything more; bringing their lips together was almost out of the equation. He had never done anything so intimate with someone of the same gender. Sure, he and Hunk would be fairly close to one another when they danced to samba or merengue for kicks back in their dorm at the Garrison. But Lance had never done anything like this.

Somehow, it felt natural. He didn't need to think about what to do next. Instinct took full control.

Just then, Keith took hold of the blue paladin's face and pulled him into a deep kiss; he'd received enough kisses on his neck and was tired of the teasing. Lance snapped his eyes open and went pale with surprise, but quickly melted back into Keith's warmth. His eyes fluttered shut as his cheeks heated with pleasure all over again. Their kisses were effortless, like they'd done it a hundred times before.

 _"[He's] somethin' mystical in colored lights. So far from typical but, take my advice. Before you play with fire, do think twice. And if you get burned, don't be surprised._

 _Got me lifted, driftin' higher than the ceilin'. And, oh baby, it's the ultimate feelin'_

 _You got me lifted feeling so gifted, sugar, how you get so fly?"_

Lance succumbed to Keith completely now, and let his bare hands touch him all over. He traced the grooves of his body with a sort of purpose. He felt so admired and wanted. 'Finally…' Lance thought as he moaned into another kiss.

The red paladin felt himself growing limp as they kissed, but he wanted to take control, at least for a little while. Not wanting them to collapse onto the floor, he gave Lance's chest a light push, and he stepped back until his legs hit Keith's bed and he fell into a seat. The red paladin made sure their lips weren't apart too long; Lance gripped his leg and pulled it onto the bed, silently begging him to come closer. Keith swiftly got on top and wove his fingers in Lance's hair as their lips reconnected.

Something shifted within Lance then; a little voice at the back of his head told him they were taking things too fast. 'What is he…' Lance speculated, but quickly read the mood of the situation and knew Keith's intentions. 'No… No way! We can't— How would that even work?'

But their passionate kisses and Keith's little moans provided great distraction from the reasoning of his mind.

Lance didn't know what exactly was going on, but he loved it. There was nothing he wanted more than to hear Keith's voice full of pleasure. He pulled the paladin closer to him—if that was even possible—and Keith mindlessly crawled on top, bringing Lance to his back and holding his face as he kissed him deeper. Sweat trailed off the sides of his forehead and from his hair and dripped onto the bed sheets.

Lance wanted more. So much more… The kissing was pleasing, but unsatisfying. There was a growing ache at his hips, and he'd noticed Keith twitch every now and again; that gave Lance enough evidence to think he wanted more as well.

The blue paladin bucked his hips and flipped Keith onto his back. He huffed in surprise, but quickly relaxed and laughed, wrapping his arms around Lance shoulders and allowing him on top. The blue paladin shifted their positions so they could both fit on the bed comfortably as they continued kissing.

Now the throb at his hips became nearly impossible to ignore. 'Is it…just like…fucking a girl?' Lance wondered as he pinned Keith's arms down by his wrists and grinded their hips together. 'No…what am I thinking? I don't want to fuck Keith…' At that, he released his grip on the red paladin's wrists and scooped his quivering body into his arms. 'I care about him… I want…' It was difficult to have even the slightest trail of thought as their bodies rubbed together. 'I want to make him feel good…' he settled, planting a firm kiss on his lips.

At this point, Keith let moans escape his throat freely; he didn't bother holding them down now that he was so overwhelmed with pleasure. He clawed at the back of Lance's shirt and held him close as his hips bucked up and his toes curled under. He wanted to rip both their shirts off and feel the sensation of their chests touching… He wanted to rip all their clothes off at that, but he couldn't muster up the energy.

Keith grew weaker with every thrust Lance threw at him, every kiss he gave him, and every gentle caress of his fingers over his skin. Everything felt so good and so unreal.

"You dumbass," Lance then began, his voice just above a whisper as he continued the motion at their hips. "I was so worried about you…" he mumbled between kisses. "And you pushed me away without a second thought… How dare you?" He threw his hips forward with more force as he asked the rhetorical question. Keith let out a scruff moan as his back arched.

The blue paladin paused for a moment and chuckled to himself. Keith gave him a look and huffed, "What? Why'd you stop?" Offense riddled his voice.

"Sorry… You're just…so sensitive."

Keith blushed a deeper red, but this time out of embarrassment. He turned his face away and hid half of it in the pillow. "Shut up… I'm new to this… Don't make fun of me for it." He began to bring a hand to the exposed side of his face, but Lance stopped him.

"I'm _not_ making fun of it…" There was a genuine quality to Lance's tone, and Keith looked at him from the corner of his eye. "I… I love the sound of your voice. It lets me know I'm doing it right." The blue paladin chuckled. "And, frankly…I've missed hearing it." he added, brushing a strand of hair from Keith's eye.

Keith softened at the gentle touch. Lance then ran his fingers over the side of his face and scooped his head into his hand, reconnecting their lips and resuming the motion at their hips.

Keith was so flattered by the comment, his stomach knotted. Somewhere deep down, he was shy about letting Lance have him this way, but he didn't want the blue paladin to stop. He loved the feeling of their lips gliding over one another's. He loved holding someone close, someone to show him such affection.

But something felt off. It wasn't a nervous undertone that caused the knots in his stomach. Keith pushed Lance back by his shoulders, separating their lips, and laid frozen under him, his eyes wide.

"You okay?" Lance inquired gently.

Keith would have said "no, something is very wrong," but the words wouldn't form. All he was able to do was push the other paladin back and turn away before something gargled at the back of his throat, and a hot mess of food and elixir left his mouth, littering the bedroom floor.

Lance sprung up and gasped, the arousal at his south quickly fading as Keith upchucked a second time. "Oh no, you are _definitely_ _not_ okay!" he shouted, gathering his bearings and running over to his jacket that, luckily, was still clean, then digging for the communication device.

He found his phone on the floor and paused the music that continued to play before he called clicked on the device. "Uh, guys?!" he called frantically, cautiously stepping back to Keith and sitting down next to him.

"What's wrong, Lance?" Allura responded.

Just then, another wave came up, and the red paladin hurled a third time. Lance didn't know how to phrase it nicely. "Keith's kinda…projectile vomiting."


	10. Amends - A Series of Events

**Reminder** : This story takes place in season 1, where Keith still pilots Red and Lance pilots Blue, and Shiro is still with the team. It continues into season 4.

 **AN** :Okay so, you know how I said chapter 9 was my longest chapter? Yeah, check that. This shit is over 14k words, close to 15k! How? Anyway, in this chapter, I summarize events that occurred in season 2, but also add my own flare. Thanks for sticking around, and if you're new, thanks for choosing this fic!

(Updated: 10/14/2017 and 12/04/2017)

I edited out the part where Keith says he doesn't know what a virgin is. He's 18, he knows what it is/means lol

I was debating what to do with that scene for a while and decided to remove/edit it. If you are a new reader, disregard this message lol

* * *

 **Chapter 10: Amends/A Series of Events**

\\\

 _Amends_

The imitation alcohol that felt so good going down his throat now burned as it came up. With every hurl, Keith's hatred toward himself grew. Somewhere deep down, he knew better, but he just _had_ to have that elixir. Now he was dearly paying the price for his frantic behavior.

Lance winced and shivered as Keith spewed another mess from his mouth. He tip-toed over to Keith's side and held his hair back with his arms extended out. He felt bad for the red paladin, but the sounds he made and the smell of it all was awful.

When it finally stopped coming up, Keith collapsed onto his side, huffing in exhaustion. He then began to shake, as though he were shivering. Lance couldn't tell if it was from exhaustion or because he was cold or frightened, but he didn't bother to ask. He brushed strands of hair from his face and caressed his head. "You're fine now, Keith. Just try to relax."

Keith crept his eyes open and weakly smiled at Lance over his shoulder in thanks.

Shiro then spoke through the communication device. "We're sending a bot to clean the room."

"Ten-four. I'll get Keith out of here and take him to the bathroom to wash up." Lance responded, then whispered to himself, "If he can stand, that is."

Shiro agreed that was the better option and disconnected.

Lance gently rolled a limp and groaning Keith onto his back and sat him up, then made sure he wouldn't puke again before he did anything else. "No, I'm fine now. Better, anyway." Keith mumbled.

The paladin was like putty in his arms; Lance was sure he was half-conscious. He draped his jacket around Keith's shoulders since he was still shaking, then scooped him up and carefully made his way around the hot mess on the floor and to the bathroom.

Once they made it, Lance asked if Keith could stand on his own for a few minutes and wash his face. Keith replied with a low groan but eventually nodded yes. Lance slowly brought his feet to the ground and held the paladin under his shoulders as he steadied himself, Lance's jacket still draped over him.

He kept a watchful eye on Keith as he turned on the water and washed himself, practically in slow motion. He felt guilty then. Lance hated seeing Keith all weak and unsteady like this.

"I'm sorry…" he mumbled instinctively, thinking maybe they'd danced too vigorously and that was what made Keith nauseous. 'Or maybe it was because…we were grinding…' Lance then thought to himself, embarrassed. But Keith didn't so much as look at him. He was exhausted and in no mood for apologies.

"Shut up," he huffed, supporting himself with his hands on the counter. "Get me a towel."

Lance nodded and fetched him one from an in-wall closet, looking back several times to make sure Keith wouldn't fall over while he was away from him. After retrieving the cloth, Lance ran back and handed it to Keith.

He swiped it from him and halfheartedly wiped his face and hands dry, then threw the towel down and fell into Lance's arms with a flop. "Take me to bed. I need sleep." he groaned.

Lance laughed through his nose and agreed to take Keith to bed. Returning to the red paladin's room was out of the question, so Lance scooped him up again and carried him to his room. The light and fresh scent of the air helped ease some of the pounding in Keith's head, and the cool bedsheets helped him relax further.

Just then, Shiro came by. "Hey, how is he?" he asked gently.

Lance whipped around, relief washing over him when he saw the black paladin. He finished tucking Keith under the covers before he made his way over to him. "Eh, he's better I guess. That's what he told me." he said in a hushed tone. "At least he stopped shivering."

"Hmm. He was probably in brief shock after he threw up."

"Yeah, it was pretty sudden." Lance agreed.

"Well, Coran took responsibility and confessed, and explained that he gave Keith some sort of- elixir to drink?" Shiro recalled, then looked to Lance for a further explanation.

" _Yeah_ , about that. Keith ended up drinking the majority of it straight from the bottle. I don't know if Coran _gave_ him the whole thing or if he took it, but…" he shrugged. The damage was already done. "When I tasted it, I knew right away it was alcohol. Or something similar to it. That's probably what made him sick. He said it was his first-time drinking "alcohol" of any kind, so." Lance informed him, shrugging.

"Right…I see." Shiro absorbed Lance's words as he looked over at Keith. Sweat still riddled his hair, but the redness from his cheeks completely faded. He almost looked like a corpse, he was so pale and laid so still. "Well, I stopped by his room, and from the looks of it, he must have thrown everything up. So, he should be fine by tomorrow. I mean, he'll probably have a pounding headache, but he'll be rid of that elixir at least."

Lance nodded and rubbed his arm, looking over to Keith as well. The red paladin then shifted and propped himself up on his elbow, rubbing his eye to focus his vision. Lance instinctively went over and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Lay down, Keith, you need to rest."

Keith looked up at him and weakly took hold of his sleeve. "Mmm…stay…" he mumbled.

Lance blinked in confusion, then looked over at Shiro when he understood what Keith meant. The black paladin nodded for him to stay, but Lance was still hesitant. "I- I can't, Keith. I'll only be in your way and- you won't sleep as well. I- I'll go sleep in the living room, or-"

It was clear to Shiro that Lance thought sleeping with Keith would be wrong, so he stepped in. "Lance," he began. The blue paladin looked his way. "Let go of what you think is wrong, and do what's right. If sleeping with him will somehow help him, then just do it. We aren't on Earth anymore. There are no rules or standards, really. You want him to return to his old self, don't you?" he encouraged gently.

Lance paused and contemplated Shiro's words before he agreed with him. He then turned back to Keith and brushed some hair from his face. "I'll stay, Keith."

The red paladin smiled at him, then fell onto his back and got comfortable between the sheets.

Lance straightened up as Keith fell back asleep. He looked over at Shiro again. He smiled at him warmly and nodded with a proud look on his face. He then stepped out of the room as he said, "I'm going to see if that bot came around to Keith's room. You get changed and such. Sweet dreams." he mused with a little laugh. Lance blushed lightly and shooed him out.

In all honesty, he was still hesitant to lay with Keith. It didn't feel immoral—Lance wasn't like that—it just felt strange being so close to another boy who was initially his rival. Well, rival-in-theory. He certainly didn't hate Keith now. And that was another thing. What if that urge overcame him again, that urge to take Keith and have him for himself? He didn't want to disturb the red paladin in the middle of the night. He knew he needed his rest after the day's events.

Lance tried to shake himself of thoughts and worries and relax. He went to shower and wash up, changing into his paladin pajamas afterwards, then head back to his room where Keith slept. Exhaustion overtook him and his eyelids became heavy. He didn't think too much of sharing his bed with another boy now. As soon as his body hit the bed, he sank into the cushions and drifted off into a dreamless but restful sleep.

•

This time, Keith _did_ dream as he slept. He dreamt of the paper planes he saw in his head when he and Coran used the Thought Projector at the training deck. The table was still flipped and papers were scattered around the shack. It wasn't a pleasant sight, but it was how Keith knew he was in his mind. The space around the shack was still pitch black. Everything was the same, just as he'd left it.

When he stepped out, he saw the same paper planes with images of his past painted on them. But this time, they flew closer to the ground. This time, Keith had hope of catching them. He climbed up onto the roof and reached out to one, and it fell gracefully into his hand. It was his memory of getting recruited at the Garrison; joy flowered in his chest. He reached for another one, and caught another memory from the Academy; the day he met Shiro, and their experiences sharing a dorm room.

Another plane flew down, and it depicted the day Shiro came out to him as his half-uncle, the half-brother of Keith's father. He explained how they were only half related since he and Keith's father shared a different mother. Keith bawled when he discovered he had a link to his family, even if it was a partial one. He remembered how some of the hopeless loneliness drained from him, and that space filled with joy and thanks, if only for a little while.

When Keith looked up from the memory, he saw many more planes flying toward him, some of them painted with less significant memories than others, but Keith was grateful they returned to him regardless. He needed to remember his past, no matter how small the memory. His pockets were full at this point, nearly overflowing since he'd caught almost all the planes. But then, one more flew his way.

The last one told the story of his time alone in the shack, the months he spent researching and analyzing his surroundings. He then recalled how trashed the shack he was sitting on was, and climbed down from the roof and went back inside to reorganize it. He repositioned the table and straightened out the curtains, and reorganized all his maps and notes on the cork board. He pinned the last note to the board and stood with his hands on his hips, proud of his work. But then, something sparked in his mind. He realized he had forgotten something. He tried to remember his mother…and where he had gotten the dagger on his belt…but soon, everything went black, and he woke up, laying on his side in a bed that didn't feel like his.

•

Lance had woken up before Keith. He'd forgotten he let the red paladin stay the night. He must have slept extremely well; Lance hadn't heard him stir once. The blue florescent lights lit up his face; he looked so calm when he slept. Lance smiled at him, then propped himself up on his elbow and placed a kiss on his forehead. He paused to see if he'd wake, but Keith only shifted slightly and drifted back into a deep slumber. But Lance didn't mind. He had a few things to do before Keith woke up anyhow.

He quietly rolled out of bed and gave his body a good stretch before he made his way to the bathroom to wash up. Once he was done, he dressed in his usual clothes, styled his hair, and spritz his usual deodorant and cologne over himself before making his way to the kitchen. He wondered why it was so quiet, but then caught sight of the clock on the wall; it read 7:20am. Lance hadn't thought he had woken up so early, but then again, he and Keith went to sleep rather early the night before.

Memories from the night danced around in his head as he poured himself and Keith a glass of water. It was still hard to believe everything actually happened and wasn't a big hallucination. He recalled how curvy Keith's body appeared to be, and how he effortlessly swayed his hips around… Lance ended up chugging his glass since he was so lost in thought. He didn't think he was that thirsty.

As Lance made his way back to his room, he wondered if Keith was awake. He wondered what he'd say to him first, where he'd even begin…

When he entered his room, he found Keith still asleep, so he placed the glass next to the bed, then rolled out his yoga mat. It was part of Lance's morning routine to do yoga back on Earth, so he tried to keep it up while they were out in space. Of course, he didn't always get a chance to practice, but he took full advantage of every time he did.

Lance went through the usual poses, like Mountain Pose, Child's Pose and Upward Facing Dog, Downward Facing Dog, and the four Warriors just to name a few. (LINK) As he came to the end, Keith shuffled in his bed and let out a sloppy yawn. Lance greeted him with a warm smile and a playful, "Morning, sleeping beauty."

Keith slowly sat up, his hair bouncing around his head and jutting out in every direction, then blinked his blurry vision into focus. He smacked his lips together and rubbed his eyes before he responded. "Morning… Where am I?" he asked, hardly able to think through his pounding headache.

"You're in my room, man." Lance chuckled. "How are you feeling?"

"Meh, shitty. I slept like I was dead, but my legs are sore…and my head is just…ugh…" Keith brought his hands to his temples in pain.

Lance picked up the glass of water and handed it to him as he sat down on the bed. Keith thanked him and washed the stale taste from his mouth. The refreshing liquid helped cool his head a bit, but the pounding still went on. Then, a sudden urge came over him. He sprang out of bed as he blurted, "I gotta pee!"

Lance laughed and took the glass from Keith as he dashed out of the room.

After he'd relieved himself, Keith absorbed his reflection in the grand mirror of the bathroom; his messed-up bed hair, his chapped lips… He then recalled his dream as he washed the dirt from his face and brushed it from his teeth. It felt so unreal. He thought back to everything that happened before the lot of them were projected into space, remembering his dream, then about what happened last night…

He thought to ask Lance what he remembered about it, but before that, he needed to explain himself and apologize. He certainly remembered how he'd acted toward him.

He reentered Lance's room with guilt in his gut; it showed in his body language too.

"What's the matter, Keith?" the blue paladin asked instinctively.

"It's- nothing… I… I just need to get something off my chest." Keith took some time to collect his thoughts before he spoke. Lance sat patiently in the meantime. Keith then sat down on the edge of the bed with Lance and began. "Lance, I'm sorry. I know that's cliché of me to say… but I truly am sorry… For everything. For having that argument with you…for pushing you away… I didn't mean any of it, I swear."

Lance's expression drooped—he didn't want to be reminded—but he let Keith continue.

"I… I was really upset with myself for training too hard, and…confused about what was going on in my head…and I was so sick of people asking me how I was doing… I had just gotten so fed up with being babied… And I let all my anger out at you." Keith lifted his gaze and met Lance's eyes. "I know you were just worried about me like they were… I truly am sorry, _so_ sorry. I never meant to make you feel like you were in my shadow, or that I was better than you, in any way. I swear, Lance." Keith practically pleaded for forgiveness.

Lance then sat up straighter as he caught on to what he just said. "Wait… How did you—I… I said those things when you were in the cryo-pod. How could you have known I said that—Did you hear me?"

"Well, yes. I guess I did. I didn't _know_ I'd heard you until Coran and I used the Thought Projector. You know, the thing we used to help us bond and form Voltron?" Lance nodded in recollection. "Yeah…I- had this weird dream," Keith wasn't going to explain it all to him. He knew Lance wouldn't understand anyhow. "where you were talking to me, but I couldn't respond to you. You couldn't hear me, no matter what. Then you mentioned something about me being in the cryo-pod, and that's when I knew I was remembering what you'd said to me."

Lance sat frozen, awestruck. He was puzzled about how Keith could have heard and remembered his words…but also slightly embarrassed about what he'd said. Those words were private; so private he didn't even want _Keith_ to hear them. But, he knew there was no taking them back or denying them now. Frankly, he didn't want to.

Keith then went on. "Oh yeah. There's also- some of your thoughts—or memories or whatever—got mixed into my mind? I don't know how to put it, but…that's why I was acting so weird. I tried to figure out which thoughts were mine and which were yours, but I ended up accepting all of them as mine…and then I completely lost myself… That's why I put up that fight with Allura… I was going crazy…" Keith trailed off and looked at his hands, ashamed of himself.

Lance would have comforted him, but he was still trying to piece everything together. He held his chin in his hand, resting his elbows on his knees in thought. He was still confused, but the dots were slowly connecting.

Eventually, Keith shook it off and left it in the past, but he kept a mental note to apologize to the princess and the others for any trouble he caused them.

Lance then spoke up. "Well... Firstly, I accept your apology. Don't worry about it, man. It's all good now that you've explained everything. I would have come to resolve things earlier, but... I don't know. I thought you hated me after that argument. I've never been yelled at like that before... Well, by anyone other than my mom." he chuckled. "I just thought...I thought you _despised_ me. And I figured that, even if I _did_ try to work things out, it wouldn't go anywhere... I don't know..." he mumbled, looking down at the floor.

Keith then turned and faced him more fully now. "Lance, I _never_ hated you. I- I'm sorry if I made you think that I did... I just- really wasn't myself... Back at the lounge, when I called to you…it tore me apart when you didn't turn around. I wanted to tell you I was looking all over for you because I wanted to apologize, and figure out what was going on in my head… Initially I didn't know why you didn't stop and turn around…but now I do." Keith hung his head, then looked up at Lance and apologized one more time.

Lance looked up and smiled at him. Keith's voice was just so genuine; it practically oozed sincerity. "It's alright. I understand. I forgive you."

Keith paused and smiled back at him. "Alright, I'm glad. Thanks."

They sat in a comfortable silence for a little while before Keith spoke up again.

"So…another thing." he began, looking at Lance as he spoke. "You- also said how you wanted our rivalry to end, and that it was pointless…and stuff…" Lance blinked as he recalled his words, suddenly feeling like he'd been thrown under the bus. "Did I hear you right?" Keith added.

He looked around the room, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well...yeah. I _did_ say that." He then looked back at Keith and gave him a sheepish smile.

Keith grinned in return, glad that Lance was slowly maturing out of his old ways. He then added, "But…we can't be entirely buddy-buddy, ya know. That would ruin our reputation and dynamic." he mused, throwing a playful wink Keith's way.

The red paladin shoved him and rolled his eyes.

"Atta boy!" Lance played on. Keith shook his head and said, unamused, "Shut up," but grinned as he crossed his arms and threw Lance an unimpressed look. The blue paladin laughed out loud.

He calmed down then, and took a second to appreciate the moment. He liked spending quality time like this with Keith. He wanted many more moments like this; wanted to see him wake up each morning and greet him with a smile…ruffle his bed-head and mess it up some more…

"So, um… What happened last night?" Keith then asked with a shrug.

Lance's satisfied expression fell as he was pulled from his daydream. He glared at Keith in disbelief. "Wait- what?"

"What?" Keith asked plainly.

"You- you don't remember what happened?"

"No…" Lance only stared at him. "What, did I do something stupid?" Lance continued to stare at him. "I did something stupid, didn't I? How bad was it? Did I break something? Please tell me I didn't br-"

"No! You- you didn't break anything." Lance cut in, exclaiming in disbelief. He knew exactly why Keith couldn't remember; it was because of that elixir. It made him blackout (link definition), just like alcohol could.

He felt more nervous than ever now, knowing he had to retell the whole story to Keith. There was a _lot_ that happened, that probably shouldn't have. "Well..." he trailed; he didn't even know where to begin. "You…took my phone and earbuds…and then danced a lot in your room...you know, to the music that was playing from my phone."

"Uh-huh." Keith nodded in comprehension.

"Then Allura sent me to calm you down, since you'd just woken up from your coma earlier in the day." Keith nodded for him to go on. "And... I _tried_ to calm you down, but you'd been drinking a lot of that elixir...and it made you— act differently, to say the least."

Keith blinked in confusion. "What do you mean?"

He debated what he should tell him, and what he should _definitely_ leave out. "Ehhh... I'd prefer not to go into detail."

But Keith made him. "Lance, just tell me. No more secrets, come on."

There was no way around this; Lance knew it. He huffed before he went on. "So... You were- I don't know...flirting with me, or something." Keith blushed in embarrassment at the sound of that. "Yeah, tell me about it." Keith laughed to himself. "I- I didn't know what to do, you just kept- _flirting_ with me! And- and then you convinced me to dance with you so we danced and then we got too close," Lance rambled as he began to redden and break a sweat. "and- and then we were grinding on each other and then you pulled me onto your bed and we were kissing and- gaaahh." He stopped and covered his face in embarrassment. "I should have stopped it- we- I-"

"Wait, what!? Are you saying—" Keith didn't want to utter the word, but it flew out of his mouth. "Are you saying we _fucked_?!"

"No, we didn't _actually_ fuck, but we came _real_ close to it!"

"What do you mean!?"

They were both yelling at each other in utter disbelief now.

"I mean we rubbed our dicks together, Keith!" Lance told him matter-of-factly.

"Oh, my fucking—" he yelled, gripping his hair. "What the _fuck_?! Wait- was it like- skin-to-skin?!" he asked with his hands out.

"No, thankfully! We still had our pants on!"

"Okay— Well, are you sure this wasn't some _sick_ dream you had?!" he asked in disgust.

"Yes, I'm sure, Keith! It really happened!" The red paladin still looked at him with a questioning expression. "It really _fucking_ happened!" Lance reiterated, almost not believing the words himself.

"Well, I- you can't blame _me_ for this." Keith defended.

"No, I'm _not_. This was- mostly my fault. The grinding part was, in some respect..."

The thought of them doing such a thing made Keith's heart flutter in a way that alarmed him. "Well- Why didn't you stop it?!"

"I don't know! It just- started to feel really good, and I guess instinct took over- I don't know!" He reached back and grabbed the pillow, then covered his face with it. "You don't understand, Keith, you- you're still new to all that..."

Keith furrowed his brows in confusion. "What do you mean I'm still 'new'?"

Lance looked up at him then. "Well, you're still a virgin, right? I mean- no offense, but..." he shrugged. Keith squinted his eyes in confusion, but Lance thought he was getting the stink-eye. "Uh… N- never mind. You just- never mind."

"How did you know I was a virgin?" he then asked.

Lance became flustered again and stuffed the pillow in his face. "Keith, please!"

"I- I'm sorry, I just wanna know. How close— What boundaries did we step over last night?" He rubbed his arm in slight embarrassment. Eventually, Lance lowered the pillow and brought it back down to his lap. He looked at Keith with an expression that read "Do I really have to answer that?"

"I just- don't remember what happened… I just want to know how you knew." Keith told him gently. He could tell Lance was getting hot and bothered by his questions.

Lance grinned a little, then hesitated before he nervously pulled the words from his throat, making sure to avoid eye contact. "Well…um… You would shiver a bit whenever I'd touch you gently…and- and when I kissed your neck…you'd moan…" Lance shook his leg in an uncomfortable manner. "And I was like, 'Dis boy sensitive…'" he laughed, covering his mouth with his hand. "So, I figured, because you were so sensitive," Lance choked out through laughs. His face began to redden again. "that- y- you were still a virgin." He stuffed his face back into the pillow. "Now please don't make me talk about this anymore, _please_ , Keith."

The red paladin turned away and crossed his arms over his torso. He blushed madly and instinctively hid his face behind his hair. "Well then…I shouldn't have asked…" Lance laughed a bit harder at that. "I- this is so humiliating honestly, but- I can't help but laugh about it." Keith admitted, chuckling along with Lance.

After they'd calmed down, a stiff, awkward silence fell between them. They both debated what to say next. "This is ridiculous, honestly." Keith then blurted, turning to face Lance.

He nodded in immediate agreement. "Yeah…a little."

"I just feel stupid for not remembering."

"Don't worry about that. I think you lost your memory because of that elixir. It was very similar to alcohol and- I think you drank too much and blacked out."

"I blacked out?" Keith asked, worried. Lance explained what the word meant in terms of intoxication, then Keith relaxed some.

"It's going to take us a while to get past this, isn't it?" the blue paladin asked after a brief pause.

"Us? You're the one that remembers everything that went down. I can't recall shit." Keith mused.

Lance threw him a look. "Shut up."

"Am I wrong?" he laughed.

"Shut up!" Lance exclaimed, burying his face in the pillow again.

Keith chuckled as he scratched the back of his head. Then he noticed how dirty his hair was. It was like he ran his fingers through wax. "Wowh, my hair is _greasy_." he cringed.

"Well, yeah, you didn't take a shower afterwards." Lance mumbled into the fluff. "You basically just washed your hands and went to bed." He then lifted himself back up. "But I guess that's understandable after projectile vomiting all over the place."

"Wait- what?"

"Yeah. We- grinded for a bit, and then you threw up all over your floor. They had to send a bot to clean it up."

Keith only blinked in response. "You know- I'm done talking about this. It's too much to take in at once…" His headache began to get worse now.

Lance laughed about it one more time before they settled down and tried to think of a way past this. "What does all this make _us_ now?" Keith then asked the impending question, slightly afraid to hear the answer to it after it left his lips.

Lance whipped his gaze over to him. "W- what do you mean? We're still- friends…ya know, partners, paladins. Whatever happened yesterday…it doesn't really change- our status of relation." He tried to play it off, but he knew it would change things for him; he would always remember what happened last night. Maybe he wanted to be more than just partners with Keith… 'But not right now…maybe later…maybe never.' But that was the least of his concerns. Or at least, that's what he told himself. Their relationship didn't necessarily play a part in taking down Zarkon and the Galra on his side.

They agreed, with minimal debate, not to make a big deal out of it and not to mention what happened to the others. It was much too personal and somewhat embarrassing, and they didn't exactly _need_ to know anyway.

"I think the most important thing for you to do now is return to yourself. You know, regain your strength…and see if you can still pilot Red." Lance advised. Keith agreed that was the best plan.

After he got cleaned up, he went back to his room and rested a bit more. Lance went and told the others Keith was better, but now was dealing with a terrible headache. They were all relieved to hear the news that he was at least returning to normal. Allura then told Coran to bring him some nutritious food, but Lance offered to take it to Keith for him.

Keith naturally thanked Lance, but then asked to be left alone so he could think of what to say to the others. Lance understood and left him alone. After he ate, he laid in his bed for some time, then got dressed in a new set of clothes. He proceeded to find Coran afterwards and ask him to gather everyone in the living room. There, he explained himself to the lot of them like he'd done with Lance, taking full responsibility for all his actions and wrongdoings, and sincerely apologizing for them.

It felt awkward apologizing, however. He stood at the center of the circular couch, and spoke to everyone at once, making sure to lock eyes with them so they could see his sincerity. He didn't want them thinking one paladin was more important than another. Everyone was understanding, as expected, but Keith was initially nervous about their reactions.

* * *

 _AN: The following text contains excerpt from VLD episodes._

 _A Series of Events_

Allura and Coran were still overprotective of Keith for the next few days, although he'd told them repeatedly he felt fine. The princess ordered him not to train for at least a day or two, regardless. As long as he could hold out at least, she mused. He agreed with some reluctance. After about a week or so, things began to return to normal. Keith regained his strength rather quickly and resumed training after Allura gave him consent.

Lance kept his distance from Keith for a while, but tried not to make it too obvious. They still wordlessly stood next to each other and bickered a bit every now and again, but Lance made sure not to stand in his "bubble" too much, and not to focus his gaze on Keith for too long. A funny feeling would arise in his chest if he did.

He would never admit it, but Lance would give in to his urges every now and then after that day. He just couldn't resist when the thought of Keith huffing in ecstasy and squirming under him crawled back into his mind. He would touch and pleasure himself in his bed, in the bathroom, under the water that escaped the showerhead, moaning Keith's name quietly to himself, either into the sheets of his bed or into his hand, whichever was more effective at muffling his voice. He was slightly embarrassed about behaving so scandalously under the circumstances…but he just couldn't help himself. He wanted so badly to replace his hand with Keith's body, but he knew that was no easy task.

Eventually, his urges subsided and things returned to normal. But that didn't stop the reoccurrence of thoughts about Keith that danced in Lance's head.

•

After many, what now seemed like, minor battles, the team was practically forced to head to Zarkon's headquarters and rescue Allura after she sacrificed herself for Shiro on a mission, they fought the battle of their lives then. Hunk ended up crash-landing and getting Allura from her prison cell, but immediately afterwards she ordered them to find and save Shiro after she heard him struggling. She, along with Coran, knew the immense strength Zarkon and his wife possessed. The paladins were nowhere near ready to battle them and their forces head-on.

After they managed to escape, Haggar fired a beam of dark energy into their wormhole and caused a temporal rift, scattering them across the universe.

Keith and Shiro crash-landed on an arid, rocky planet, far from each other. A decent mile or so. Things were bad enough, but now Keith's Lion was unresponsive, and Shiro was wounded and far from help.

Keith hadn't found out about the black paladin's wound until later on; once he heard the news, his heart beat out of his chest as more adrenaline coursed through his veins. He wasn't excited to know his relative was wounded; quite the contrary. He was so stressed and worried about the situation and about Shiro, he swore his body would give out; he was thankful he held on this long, through the battle and all.

Once he reached Shiro, he faced another obstacle, aside from the blasts of water from underground guizers, and the split in the earth he already faced earlier. Some nasty, lizard-like creatures were nagging Shiro for his flesh. Keith figured they'd be hungry, living in a wasteland like this.

Things had just gone from bad to worse. He turned to Black then and called, "I know I'm not Shiro, but he's in trouble!" Keith then placed a hopeful hand onto its metal snout and added, "We need to help him."

He knew it was a longshot, but he was desperate and the least he could do was try. After several more pleas, Black responded and lit up. A wave of relief washed over Keith then, but he couldn't relax just yet. He quickly climbed in and ran to its head, taking a seat in the piloting chair and commanding it to crush one of the creatures just as it jumped for Shiro. He crushed another, then roared at the others and scared them away.

Shiro gaped at Black, guessing Keith was inside. He sat in awe as he caught his breath under the metallic beast.

Later, after Keith helped Shiro into the Lion, they flew back over to Red, which was now operational, and settled by a formation of rocks. Keith grabbed some survival supplies from Red and came back over to where Shiro was seated with firewood, a lighter, and a flask of water that they ended up sharing.

As concerned as Keith was for Shiro, he couldn't help but wonder about the others…about Lance. He felt so stupid about not remembering what they'd done. He knew Lance played it off when he asked if things would change between them now. He wondered if he'd gotten injured during the battle with Zarkon… He wondered if he'd ever even see him again. It made his throat constrict and his chest ache.

"Thanks for saving me." Shiro then muttered as they sat by the fire.

"You'd have done the same for me." Keith replied plainly. He knew it was the absolute truth. "How's your wound?" he then inquired gently.

"My wound's great…its getting bigger all the time." he mused lightly. He then looked over at Keith and saw his expression drenched in worry. "Just- trying to lighten the mood."

"Hang in there," Keith encouraged. "When Allura and Coran find us, they'll fix you right up."

Shiro then leaned his head back in pain and huffed, "Keith…" His voice was dry and frail. "If I don't make it out of here…I want you to lead Voltron."

Keith's heart wrenched, and he choked on his breath. "Stop talking like that. You're going to make it." he assured him with the best of his ability.

Shiro then smiled weakly, looking like he'd almost accepted the reality of things through all the pain. But then, a blue light began to shine above them, and Pidge appeared through a wormhole; a familiar one they were happy to see again. Keith stood up, overjoyed to see the Green Lion. The castle-ship then appeared shortly after, and Coran, Allura and Pidge all helped the red and black paladin's inside.

Coran helped Shiro change out of his armor, then disinfected his wound with an Altean potion that burned like one hundred bee stings at once. He then helped him into a cryo-suit, just as he'd helped Keith at the very beginning. Seeing his half-uncle in the pod brought back so many memories, but he was unable to dwell on them too long.

"Now we have to locate Hunk and Lance." Allura reminded them.

•

Lance was scared out of his mind as he span wildly in the torn wormhole, but he knew he wasn't the only one; from their screams of horror, he could tell the others were equally as frightened. He shouted Keith's name upon instinct, then called out to the others. His chest tightened when no one responded back.

When the defective wormhole spat them out in the madness of it all, he saw Hunk's Lion spiraling out of control with him. He was glad he wasn't going to be alone. They crash-landed onto a watery planet that was frozen on the outside, but warm and alive underneath. There, Lance discovered a group of mermaids.

They seemed like friendly beings until, supposedly, the queen brainwashed them. They were, more accurately, put in a trance of sorts until rebel mermaids found them and "saved" Lance. He wished they hadn't; he was having quite an interesting dream as he slept.

He dreamt he was back at the castle with Keith. What room they were in was unclear, but it wasn't important. Lance was telling him all about how he met these mermaids, and then how they gave him the ability to turn into one at will. Keith awed, but was confused out of his mind, asking one question after the other. The room then flooded with water and they were both in their swim trunks. At this point, the dream stopped making sense, but Lance enjoyed it regardless. When they were completely submerged, Keith watched Lance as he swam around effortlessly. He then began to take his pants off, loving the feel of the water on his skin. Keith yelled at him to stop with his mouth closed and shook his head no, but Lance continued to remove them. "I don't need pants…I'm a mermaid!" he cheered.

He then was taken by the rebels and rudely awakened. Well, not initially. When he first woke, he was still in a trance. He sat up and noticed he was blindfolded and bound at the wrists, but he didn't mind. "Hello?" he asked gently. "Good morning!" he then called out to whoever was out there; he hoped it was a certain paladin.

"Where am I?" Someone whispered something in reply, but he didn't catch it. "Why am I blindfolded?" he asked, then gasped as he quickly realized, "Is this a game? I like games…" he sang.

But then some nasty gas was puffed into his face and he returned to reality, discovering it wasn't that certain paladin that bound and blinded him, but rather the rebel mermaids with weird names and jellyfish on their heads. They told him their theories about the mind-controlling queen, and how they needed his Lion to capture her and save the other mermaids. He agreed and they got to work. There were some minor hurdles when they put the plan into action, but everything eventually went accordingly.

In thanks, the now freed queen agreed to fire an energy beacon so the others could find the blue and yellow paladins. Shortly afterwards, Pidge appeared in the beam along with the castle-ship, and they returned home. Or what they saw as home for the time being, at least. All they knew was that everyone was back together and safe.

Keith and Allura explained their adventures while they were apart, and Keith told them about Shiro's injury.

"Is he okay?" Hunk then asked after he noticed Shiro struggling in pain.

"Sometimes, the healing process can cause involuntary brain wave reactions." Allura informed him.

"He…looks like he's having a bad dream." Hunk then speculated.

"He just got blasted by a space witch and mauled by giant lizards. What dream could be worse than that?" Keith asked rhetorically in response to Hunk's statement.

Allura then explained he would only have to be in the pod for a few hours. That brought a tad bit of relief to the lot of them.

Afterwards, everyone gathered for dinner, then went to bed with their stomachs full to rest after the long and dangerous trip. Coran vowed to watch over Shiro while they rested. Everyone bluntly agreed, taking time to thank him before they trudged off to their bedrooms, exhausted. Allura thanked him as well, but told him to wake her if any abnormalities appeared. Keith and Lance merely exchanged glances and shared small smiles.

Yes, Lance was glad to see Keith alright, but he wasn't going to show it. And since _he_ wasn't going to show it, neither was Keith.

However, as time passed, Lance began to struggle more and more with keeping his feelings for Keith concealed. Weeks after their separation, they got trapped in an elevator together.

Now, this wouldn't have happened in the first place, had Keith just gone up on his own or taken the stairs. But no, he had to ride in the elevator with Lance. "What the heck do you think you're doing?" he asked Keith with a scowl as he held the door open.

"Allura said there was a pool. I'm gonna go check it out. What do you think you're doing?" he practically mono-toned in reply.

Lance could tell by his tone that he wasn't there to pick a fight. He knew Keith was just as exhausted from the previous missions and encounters with Zarkon as he was.

But then... "Look. You stay on one side of the pool, and I'll stay on the other, and we'll be far, far away from each other." Lance gave him a confused look, but Keith wasn't looking at him anymore. What, was Keith suddenly afraid he'd make a move on him just because they were shirtless? Lance wasn't like that. Sure, deep down he favored seeing Keith's bare muscles, but he wasn't going to reach out and touch them for his pleasure.

But then another thought crossed his mind. He was going to ask Keith something, but then he syllabized, "Very. Far. Away."

The elevator then froze, and to make things worse, the lights went out. 'Uh-oh.' Lance thought to himself then. He knew things would really get weird and awkward now.

They both sighed hard and slumped over. "Come on! Can't we even get a _chance_ to relax?" Lance shouted out in annoyance.

"Yelling won't solve anything. We need to find a way out, or light so we can see, at least." Keith then reasoned.

"Ugh, fine."

So, they got to work and used their hands for eyes, trying to locate a lever or a switch, or a button to press so they could get the elevator moving again, or at least call for help. Lance was sure he'd traced the entirety of all four walls after some time, but he was unable to find anything of the sort. Then, he felt a hand on his shoulder, and he yelped in fear and jumped back.

"Sorry! It's just me. I didn't mean to scare you." Keith feverishly apologized.

"I know it was _you_ , but— Why did you touch me?!"

"It was an accident, get over it." Keith brushed off. He wanted to remind himself of how Lance's body felt, since he still couldn't remember their feverish experience in his room. He thought the warmth of Lance's skin would spark something and clear up the blurred part of his mind that struggled to remember. It didn't, but Lance was shirtless, and it was just the two of them, so he figured it was worth a shot. He then thought to himself, 'Okay, bad idea, bad idea…'

Lance raised a brow. 'Sure. Accident.' he thought to himself. He then noticed something glimmer in his eye. He squinted to focus his vision and saw what looked like an outline of a square. "Wait, what's that up there?"

Keith stood silent for a moment, looking for what Lance was referring to. "The glowing outline of a box on the ceiling?"

"Yeah. I think that's our way out."

"Maybe, but how are we going to reach that?" Keith asked, then stated plainly, "I'm not tall enough."

"Well, neither am I. I'm only an inch taller than you." Lance pointed out.

Keith then got under the box on the roof of the elevator. "Give me a boost."

"I can't see where you are, Keith. And- wait- Why do _I_ have to give you a boost? You're the one that swings a sword around."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"I'm saying you probably have stronger arms that me." Lance told him bluntly, trying hard not to sound like he was complimenting him.

"I- I guess." Keith stuttered, rubbing the back of his neck. "Fine. Gimme your foot."

"Keith, I'm not just going to swing my leg out into the darkness." Lance chuckled.

"Okay, fine. Then- I'm going to have to guide your leg over to my hands."

"What?" Lance choked.

But Keith already put his plan into action. He reached down and felt for Lance's leg, then trailed his hand down to his foot. "You're okay with me doing this, right?"

Keith only ran his hand down Lance's leg briefly, but it was enough to throw him off. Lance could hardly form words. "Eh- sure. Yeah." he nearly squeaked.

Keith then lifted his leg and scooped his foot into his hands. "Alright, put your hands on my shoulders." Lance did as he was asked after hesitating briefly. When his hands met Keith's body, a shiver shot down his spine; he really wished it hadn't. This was not the time nor place for him to fantasize about the softness and warmth of Keith's skin. But he needed to use his hands to steady himself when Keith boosted him up, so there was no way he could avoid touching him.

"Okay, on three, I'm going to boost you up." Keith then said.

"Wait- where do I put my other foot?" Lance asked feverishly.

"Just balance yourself on one leg." Keith told him, starting to get annoyed.

"Okay, okay. I just don't want to mess up."

Lance held on firmly to keep his balance, but then felt how prominent Keith's muscles were and couldn't help but blush. He was glad the lights were still off in the elevator.

Keith counted down then and lifted Lance up, using more strength to do so than he thought he needed to. Lance bumped his head on the ceiling, not realizing he would reach it so fast. He winced in pain before he opened the hatch and looked around. There was nothing but the elevator shaft as far as he could see. He knew somewhere up there the shaft would end.

Lance tapped him chin in thought as Keith struggled beneath him, his arms shaking in strain. "Gah- what are you doing up there?! Just climb up!"

"I'm thinking!" Lance shouted back.

"Well- can you think on the ground? You're heavy!"

Lance sighed and stepped down from Keith's hands. The red paladin shook his arms out as he spoke. "Oh, don't be a baby. The only reason I'm heavy's because it's all muscle." Lance grinned smugly.

"Yeah, don't be so proud." Keith snorted.

Lance laughed a bit before he reasoned, "I don't think we should climb up."

"Why not?"

"Think about it, it's a stupid idea. What if the elevator starts up again? It could crush us at the top!" he pointed out.

"I guess you're right." Keith agreed after some hesitation. "So, what do we do? Wait around for it to work again?"

Lance shrugged. "I guess that'd be our best-" Just then, the lights came back on and the elevator started up again. "option… Well, at least we didn't have to wait too long." he mused.

Keith leaned back against the wall and tugged at the ends of the towel over his head, covering his eyes. "Thankfully…" he huffed.

Once they reached the floor, the elevator let them out and they reached the pool area a few steps down the hall. Lance then jumped back in shock when he saw the pool on the ceiling. "What the heck?!" he exclaimed.

"Stupid Altean pools." Keith spat.

Lance then sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. "Okay. Okay." he gestured. "There's no sense in stressing about the placement of the pool. Let's just- work with it." He then stepped forward and held his towel out under the edge of the pool. Some sort of force pulled it up toward the water. "Huh. There must be an artificial gravity holding the water up there." He turned to Keith as he spoke.

"Okay. So, it'll just pull us up?" Keith shrugged.

Lance looked back at the water. "I guess. Let's go down there. I think that's the shallow end." he said as he dashed over, excited and full of energy now. Lance absolutely loved the water. Sure, it didn't have that oceanic smell to it that he was so familiar with back on Earth, but that didn't matter. Since it'd been so long since he swam, any kind of water he could swim in was good water.

Keith laughed to himself as he watched Lance. He looked…so cute when he was excited about something; the way his face lit up and his lively energy… Keith then realized his thoughts and shook his head, hiding his face behind his hair until the blush faded away. 'I need to stop.' Keith told himself.

When they got to the end of the pool, stairs materialized at their feet, then appeared to twist around near the top. They began to climb them, and once they reached the twist, the gravity shifted, so the stairs appeared normal again.

Lance threw his towel to the side and ran into the water, diving in when it was deep enough. The water was smooth, and his eyes didn't burn when he opened them, so it must have been pure. It felt amazing against his skin, like a satin robe wrapping around his body. He really wished he was a mermaid now.

Keith, on the other hand, was cautious as he neared the water. He dipped his toe in to see how warm or cool it was, then sat down by the edge and submerged his legs. He wasn't really up for a swim. He just wanted to cool down and relax.

Lance then came up with a splash. "Get in, Keith, the water's fine..." he sang as he floated on his back.

"I know. I can feel it." Keith told him plainly as he kicked his legs, the water swishing around him.

Lance looked over to him then and saw him sitting at the edge of the pool. He grinned as he submerged himself under, then swam closer to Keith. He brushed his wet hair back after he softly came up. "What's wrong?" he asked instinctively, but not with a serious tone. There was a playful grin on his face.

"What do you mean? Nothing's wrong." Keith said quickly with a sheepish grin.

Lance's grin widened as he asked teasingly, "You can't swim, can you?"

"I never said that. I just-"

"You can't swim, can you?" Lance repeated again, this time singing his words.

"Shut up..." Keith mumbled, kicking some water into Lance's face.

"Aw, it's nothing to be ashamed of, Keithers." Lance teased.

"Keithers?" he echoed with a raised brow.

"Come on, I'll show you." Lance then offered, holding his hand out.

"No thanks. You'll probably drown me."

"Wha- no way." Lance whined, slightly offended. "C'mon dude, I'm not that shallow." He looked down at the water and realized the unintentional joke he'd made, and laughed out loud.

"Aren't you proud..." Keith mono-toned.

"I didn't mean to make a joke, swear. Come, I'll teach you slowly." Keith crossed his arms and gave him a hesitant look. "Swear." Lance vowed. He then sat down in the shallow water and asked, "What do you not know how to do?"

Keith placed his towel to the side and slid into the pool, the water reaching his thighs. "Well...most importantly, I don't know how to float. And- I don't really know how to swim...the right way, anyhow..."

Lance could tell Keith was self-conscious and slightly embarrassed about his situation. "That's fine, man. I'll teach you the basics." He then stood up and offered Keith his hand. The red paladin crossed his arms and gave him an unimpressed look. "Okay, okay. But if you need help just let me know." Lance chuckled.

"Mm-hmm." Keith nodded.

The two slowly walked deeper into the pool until the water reached their shoulders. Keith didn't like the way the water felt as it crawled up his body, and anxiety began to build in his stomach as they entered the deeper part of the pool. He instinctively grabbed onto Lance's shoulder when they got to a certain point, the shifting water messing with his head. The blue paladin glanced at Keith's hand and grinned to himself at his touch.

"Alright, so now that we're deep enough…" Lance began, then noticed the frightened look on Keith's face and paused. "Keith," he smiled. The red paladin whipped his gaze over to him. "It's okay, don't be scared." He loosened up a bit at Lance's words. "You can't be afraid of the water or you'll never learn to swim."

Keith nodded in understanding and slowly peeled his hand from Lance's shoulder.

The first thing Lance taught him was how to float, showing him how to move his arms and kick his legs around before he let Keith try for himself. Keith attempted to mimic Lance's gestures, but sank after a few strokes. Lance quickly pulled him up and brought him over to a shallower part of the pool. Keith draped an arm around Lance's shoulders in support, and Lance held him up with an arm around his waist until he got his footing again. He patted him on the back to help get the water out from his throat as he coughed, then brushed his hair back and laughed a bit, not necessarily because he was entertained, but that _was_ part of the reason. Keith had his hands on Lance's shoulders now; he held on tight, anxiety flooding his body again.

Lance's laughter ceased as he absorbed Keith's appearance. His smooth hair, dripping with water and highlighted with shades of dark purple, his glistening skin dotted with droplets that shone like crystals...the color of his eyes even looked more vibrant.

"W- what?" Keith blinked through the water in his eyes. His grip on Lance loosened now.

"Uh- nothing." Lance shrugged off, then congratulated, "You did great back there, man!"

"Shut up, that was shit. This is so embarrassing." Keith said, kicking himself.

"No..." Lance encouraged. "Here, try it again. I can hold you by your waist if you want. That's how I taught my siblings." he offered.

Keith shook his head no, but after getting swallowed by the water a second time, he eagerly agreed. Lance held onto him firmly for a moment, but then Keith noticed he wasn't holding him at all; his hands merely levitated around his body. He'd gotten so lost in concentrating on the form, he hadn't noticed until now. "There you go, you're getting it!"

Keith smiled to himself, then slowly tried to turn around and face Lance. "Now, how do I swim?"

"You- uh- lift your butt up and- and then kick your legs and- and then… I don't know how to describe it." Lance stuttered, then laughed to himself. "Here, come to the edge." Keith kicked his legs and jolted his body until he reached the edge of the pool. Lance laughed his lungs out the entire time.

"Sh- shut up," Keith huffed. "That was exhausting… Alright, show me." But just as Lance dove into the water, the alarms began to blare around the castle and red lights flashed. Allura called everyone to the control room immediately.

Lance and Keith groaned in annoyance simultaneously. "Well, at least you learned how to float." Lance highlighted.

They sprung out of the water and grabbed their towels to dry off some as they ran to the control room to help. 'So much for a relaxing break,' they both thought. It was a shame, truly. Lance wanted to teach Keith some more about swimming, and Keith equally wanted to learn more.

•

Several weeks had passed. They encountered a Galra by the name of Ulaz who was a rebel fighter. He told them about the hidden base of the organization he was involved with, the Blade of Marmora, and directed them to a fold in space where an outpost was located. There, he gave the paladins directions toward their Headquarters. Unfortunately, Ulaz sacrificed himself to save Voltron from a robeast Zarkon sent. They tried to stop him, but he knew it was the better option. Shiro mourned over his death the most, since he helped the Earthling escape from the ship he was kept prisoner and experimented on.

After that day, Keith started to keep to himself, more than usual. He came out of his room less often, and wouldn't give too much constructive input during group meetings when they gathered to make plans; wouldn't say anything at times. He skipped out on meals and fought at the training deck more often… He looked like he was brooding over something; that's what Shiro and Lance thought. He'd approached Shiro about it after Keith's behavior continued for a week or so. Shiro said to just leave him alone. "I'll talk to him if it gets really bad." he assured Lance.

It was like fortunetelling. The next day, Lance noticed Keith had only gotten worse, like Shiro speculated he would. Keith was in no mood to take things lightly. Even his body language was off. He sat in the control room hunched over in his paladin chair with his hands folded. Just that was strange to see, since he usually stood with his arms crossed. His eyes were low, like he was deep in thought. Lance wanted to ask what he was thinking about, but he crossed his arms and stayed back, like Shiro asked him to.

"I can't wait to see it." Pidge then said excitedly, referring to the Blade of Marmora's headquarters. "I mean, they were able to fold space time, and that was just at an outpost!"

"Mmm, the space taco." Hunk then mused, rubbing his stomach. "It left us too soon." he pouted with humor.

"Well, sure…" Pidge replied, unamused. "But my point is: imagine how _amazing_ their home base will be!" she cheered with her arms wide.

Hunk imagined it being folded into the shape of various foods and desserts, only making Lance hungry for breakfast.

"Guys this is a serious mission, we need to focus." Keith then spoke up.

Lance contorted his face and mocked, " _We_ need to _focus_."

Coran then informed them the base was within range. Shiro advised him to bring them in slowly, but Coran stated that might be a challenge. The base seemed to be caught between two blackholes and an enormous sun, five times the size of the one in the Earth's solar system. Pidge then informed them about the extreme temperature differences outside and inside the blackholes, temperatures that were highly lethal, indirectly explaining that getting near them was a death wish.

Hunk then compared her analysis to microwaving a frozen burrito and the temperature differences due to the uneven distribution if microwaves onto the food. "Now I'm hungry for lunch!" Lance whined.

Keith then stood up, offended by their, seemingly, unnecessary comments. "Guys, quiet! Coran, where's the base located?"

"In between those three deadly celestial objects." Coran told him, his voice tense with hesitation.

"The perfect defensive position." Pidge thought to herself aloud.

"Or the perfect trap." Allura hypothesized sternly.

"Yeah, I'm with Allura." Hunk said quickly. "Maybe…we shouldn't go in there at all?"

"What are you talking about? We _have_ to go in! This is the whole reason we came out here. There is _no_ other option!" Keith countered just as Hunk finished his question.

Lance gaped at him, then gestured, "Okay…jeez, calm down." Keith furrowed his brows further and turned away without another word.

The system then ordered them to identify their business here, relaying the message sent to them from the members at the Headquarters. Shiro spoke for them and said they were sent by Ulaz and hoped to form an alliance. The members at the headquarters allowed them in, then sent them a route to enter, only open for one hour. Then it would remain closed for two days, 48 hours.

"So, uh, any thoughts on who's going to join you on this little mission?" Lance then asked Shiro nonchalantly. "I'm thinking things might get a little hot, so you're going to want someone who can stay _cool_." he offered, but Shiro insisted Keith's Lion could withstand the heat from the sun, so he should go with him. Lance countered and claimed Keith was too impulsive and too much of a "hothead" to go, but Shiro made up his mind. Meanwhile, Keith stood idly on the side and listened to their conversation, only making faces in response.

Lance frowned to himself as they then went to suit up and head over in Red. Keith had been getting a lot of attention recently. He started to feel left out…unimportant…but, those were just side thoughts. Right now, the mission Keith and Shiro were going on was what wracked his mind. This was one of their more dangerous missions.

Keith and Shiro were now headed over to the base, following the route the members sent them. Mid-flight, Shiro spoke up. "Keith, is everything okay?"

"I'm fine." he said lightly, not looking over at him.

"You kind of blew up at everybody back there. You'll to have to control your emotions if you're going to lead this group someday."

Keith scoffed as though Shiro were joking. "Lead the group?"

"When we were stranded I told you, if anything ever happens to me, I want _you_ to lead Voltron." he reminded him.

"I thought you were just delirious with pain…w- why would you make me the leader?" he choked, giving Shiro a stern but confused look.

"Because I know what you're capable of." he replied matter-of-factly, locking eyes with him. " _If_ you can learn some self-discipline."

"Why are we even talking about this?" he asked rhetorically, upset Shiro brought the subject up again. "Nothing is going to happen to you."

Shiro then placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "It's _just_ in case. I need you to get focused. When you and Allura ran away, it put us _all_ in jeopardy. If you're going to be a leader, you've got to get your head on straight." A few days earlier, Keith planned to run away in a pod, since he thought Zarkon was tracking him and finding the castle-ship. Then Allura showed up and they both ended up escaping. They thought it was for the team's good, but evidently, it proved detrimental. Keith apologized, slightly ashamed for acting selfishly and endangering the group.

One of the blackholes began to draw them in then, and Keith had to pilot them back to the route and to safety. They passed through the solar flares just before the entrance shut.

Once they landed on what seemed like a plain asteroid, two members then came up and led them inside. Underneath the plain exterior was an advance organization of fighters with technology they'd never seen before. They were lined up against the walls as Keith and Shiro made their way inside. A broad-shouldered figure then introduced himself as Kolivan, "The leader of the Blade of Marmora." He said firmly.

Shiro informed them about the coordinates Ulaz gave them, and their leader called him a fool for devoting the location of their HQ, insulting him by saying he tended to disobey orders and follow his impulses. Keith looked inside himself when Kolivan uttered those words, thinking for a moment he was referring to him, but then shook it off. Kolivan then pointed out that they'd asked the paladins to come unarmed. They thought he was referring to the Red Lion, when Keith was suddenly tackled to the ground, his arm twisted behind his back. The attacker took the dagger from his belt. "He has one of our blades… Who did you _steal_ this from?" he ordered, his voice sharp.

"I didn't! I've had it all my life!" Keith exclaimed. He tried to get Shiro to vouch for him, but he was unable to say whether or not the knife was really Keith's. The red paladin then recalled that Ulaz had a blade with the same symbol on it. "Tell me what it means." he asked feverishly.

He was desperate to know now that things weren't looking good, but Kolivan wasn't going to tell him so easily. "Our organization is built on secrecy and trust. You two should leave...now." Shiro could tell they weren't welcome, nor did they want to form an alliance, but Keith refused to give up.

"Somehow one of your knives ended up with me on Earth. Tell me how!" he nearly begged.

"Your friend is right. It is time for you to go."

"Where did it come from?!" he pressed. "I _have_ to know."

Kolivan then offered him to complete the Trials of Marmora, since he was so eager to know. Only then would he discover more about himself and the blade. Keith agreed with haste, but he regretted the decision just as quickly afterwards.

He was put through a series of battles, each round increasing in the number of members he fought that brutally kicked, punched, and threw across the room. He'd gotten his shoulder sliced in the first round, and the pain was nearly unbearable, but he wasn't going to let himself give up; not even with a knife to his neck. When he managed to get through round one, the member told him he was "not meant to go through that door." The others said the same thing. Keith assumed they were saying he wasn't strong enough to fight, insulting his small, human form. He was nearly half their size and in thinned armor.

In the end, the red paladin somehow managed to pass through seven agonizing rounds, each round increasing in the number of members to fight. Once he reached the seventh round, he knew he wasn't going to be able to defeat them on his own. 'I guess I won't be seeing the next round…' he thought to himself in defeat.

But then, he had an epiphany of sorts. His eyes locked onto the small shafts the members came up from, and he told himself that was his way out of this endless battle. He threw his dagger with all his might then and sprinted toward his exit, trying his best to fight off the other members before helpfully getting thrown by one of them; he slid toward the shaft and grabbed his knife before he dove down and landed in an elevator shaft.

•

Meanwhile, the others itched in their seats as they waited for the red and black paladins to return.

"How long has it been?" Allura ordered, an annoyed worry knitting her voice. Coran informed her that only about 10 hours had passed, or vargas in their language. "We cannot just wait here."

"The path is closed for like, I don't know, 30 more vargas or somethin'." Lance then speculated coolly. Coran briefly calculated the numbers and told him he was correct. He leaned back and commented proudly, "Yeah, I wasn't born yester-quintant."

"I- I have to see what's going on down there." Allura persisted. She was worried about them both, but Shiro slightly more.

"There's no way to get a read on their base; too much interference from the solar flares and the black holes." Pidge then told her. Hunk tried to come up with something that could work, but quickly shot it down. The best they could do _was_ wait, unfortunately.

Pidge, Hunk, and Lance then thought to pass the time in another room, so as not to disrespect Allura in her worried state, and played some road trip games to get their mind off things for a bit. Eventually, they went to bed and got some rest. There were still 25 or so hours until their entry way opened again.

•

"Guess I really _wasn't_ supposed to go through that door." Keith mused grimly as he held his shoulder, limping out of the elevator. He was so exhausted from it all, he wondered how his legs were still able to support him. The room then began to shift and distort, and before he could catch himself, everything faded to black, and he fell over.

After what seemed like a few minutes, he felt someone's presence in the room and crept his eyes open. He was still dizzy, but after blinking his vision back into focus, he saw the figure before him was Lance.

He didn't know how he'd gotten there, but joy filled his chest for a moment.

"Hey, man." the blue paladin smiled, reaching a hand out to him. "You did it." he congratulated.

"Lance?" Keith whispered. He reached his arm out and slowly stood up, groaning in pain and exhaustion.

"Kolivan told me you lasted longer than _anyone_ ever has in those battles." Lance went on. "You don't have to keep this up." he then waved off.

Keith gave him a confused look. There was something off about him. "What are you talking about?"

"Just give them the knife and let's get out of here." Lance said, almost grimly. There was a foreign smirk on his face.

"I can't give it to them, Lance… And- how did you even get here? How did your Lion-" he began to worry for Lance's safety then, but was cut off.

"That doesn't matter, Keith. Just give them the knife." he repeated, this time speaking more sternly.

Meanwhile, Shiro watched the madness unfold. "Is that a hologram?" he inquired fearfully.

"His suit has the ability to create a virtual mindscape, reflecting its wearers greatest hopes and fears." Kolivan informed him. "And at this moment, your friend _desperately_ wants to see that boy."

Shiro then continued to watch as Lance spat his words at Keith. "What is it with you and that _thing_?"

"It's the only connection I have to my past." Keith told him hoarsely. "It's my chance to learn who I really am." He was desperately trying to make him understand.

Lance gave him a disapproving look as he went on. "You know _exactly_ who you are: a paladin of Voltron. Stop living in the past and focus on the now, Keith! We're _all_ the family you need."

Keith shut his eyes and contemplated his next words for a moment. What could he say to get through to Lance and make him understand? There didn't seem to be a clear way, so he spoke from his heart. "Lance…you know I love everyone back at the ship… _especially_ you… But I _have_ to do this." He nearly choked the words out, he was so desperate.

" _No_ , you _don't_." Lance spat again, ignoring Keith's previous words. "So just give them the knife!"

"I can't do that…" he nearly whispered, his grip on the blade tightening.

"Just give up the knife, Keith! You're only thinking of _yourself_ , as _usual_." Lance exclaimed, leaning forward to add emphasis.

That struck him off guard. Keith hadn't thought he was acting selfishly…but maybe Lance was right. Maybe he had been acting overly-selfish for the past few days. But that comment wasn't going to shake his determination. "I've made my choice."

There was a pang of silence between them before Lance firmly stated, "Then you've chosen to be _alone_." He turned his back to Keith and walked away without another word.

Keith looked down at the knife again and contemplated whether he'd made the right decision. Regret filled his body, and he was confused all over again, not knowing which choice was better than the other. He then looked up and watched the distance between him and Lance grow as he continued to walk away. His heart wrenched. He couldn't just let him leave like that…

"Lance… Wait!" he begged, then started to run after him. He reached his free hand out to grab him, but a light flashed before him and the scene changed before he could.

He was back at the shack in the desert, alone at first before his father appeared. He manipulated Keith to stay with him and ignore the blasts he kept hearing outside, saying his mother would be here soon to explain everything to him.

Meanwhile, Shiro continued to watch as Keith, in reality, laid on the floor, his face tense with pain.

"You _need_ to get him out of there." he then told Kolivan, fear for the red paladin plaguing his voice.

"He can decide when to leave." Kolivan replied plainly.

"You're messing with his _mind!_ You're going to kill him!" Shiro pointed out angrily, having had enough of these games.

The leader only turned to him and stated, "Knowledge or death, Shiro."

He scowled at Kolivan before he turned and made his way to the exit, but was stopped by a pair of members.

•

With only a few minutes left until the path opened again, the others on the castle-ship ran calculations and prepared to enter through and get the other two paladins in case of emergency. Not knowing about what was happening caused them to become tense.

Just then, Allura was alerted. "The Red Lion is moving!" she called out.

"We gotta get down there!" Lance called out after her. He knew something was off. Why would Red activate on her own if everything was alright? He speculated that Keith was in some kind of trouble, since the Lions were able to sense when their paladins were in danger. But he didn't want to dwell on the thought too much.

Lance then went over to his seat in the control room and prepared himself like the others.

After a few agonizing minutes passed, Coran cried, "The Red Lion has started attacking!"

"Wait- what does that mean? Why would the Lion attack? Unless…" Hunk asked, then speculated the same thing Lance had earlier.

"Allura?" the blue paladin asked softly, his anxiety increasing by the second. Allura told everyone to stay focused, but, how could he? Who knew what exactly was going on down there? Lance hesitated to find out himself… They were stuck between two black holes and a sun, for crying out…anything could happen under those conditions.

It couldn't end here. There was still so much Lance hadn't told Keith...so much they hadn't done together, intimately and otherwise. He was upset about how eager Keith was to go to that base, and now…whoever was in there betrayed and attacked them…Lance was sure of it.

He wished Keith wasn't so impulsive. He wished he knew what he was thinking about so much before he and Shiro went on this mission…

•

When Keith finally woke up from the hallucination, he realized the blasts he was hearing were really occurring around him. He didn't know what caused them, but something made the asteroid rumble.

Shiro rushed in then and help him up. "Keith, are you okay?" he asked him hastily.

"Stop what you are doing!" one of the members then ordered.

Keith groaned before he asked, "What are you talking about? What's going on?"

"Call off your beast!" Kolivan told him, not answering his question. The base was falling to pieces beneath their feet and over their heads; there was no time for explanations.

"Move out of the way! We're leaving!" Shiro told him firmly.

"You're not leaving with that blade! It doesn't belong to you. You _failed_ to awaken it!" Kolivan then shouted.

"What does that _mean_!?" Keith ordered, an annoyed anger weaving his words.

"Give up the blade." Another member then said, and ran to attack Keith, but Shiro activated his robotic arm and fought in his place.

Back at the castle, tensions only rose as the clock ticked down. "How much longer until we can get in?" Allura asked.

"Just a few more ticks!" Coran replied.

"Get ready." she ordered sternly.

Lance braced himself as though for impact. He noticed his leg bouncing up and down then. He wondered how long he'd been doing that for.

•

"Wait!" Keith then shouted out, stopping them before they could swing at each other. "Just take the knife." Shiro and the Blade of Marmora member disengaged and looked at Keith, puzzled. "It doesn't matter where I come from. I know who I am." he said confidently. "We all need to work _together_ to defeat Zarkon." Keith's expression lifted then as he added, his words solemn, "And if that means I give up this knife, fine…take it."

Something glimmered in his eye then, and it took him a second to realize the light came from his blade. Once he looked down, it began to shine brightly, so bright it was almost blinding. But Keith's eyes were wide in awe and shock, and he glared at the knife until it grew into a sword.

"The only way this is possible…is if Galra blood runs through your veins." Kolivan then stated, awestruck as well.

Keith could hardly believe his ears. He thought he passed out again and was fantasizing all this. Nothing felt real anymore, not even the pain he felt throughout his entire body. Not even the blade he felt in his hands; it felt like it was connected to him, spiritually rather than physically. He was afraid to move, afraid to do anything other than admire it in all its glory.

Back at the castle-ship, Coran began to count down the final seconds. Lance was sure he was ready enough to go through with their plan, but as the seconds dwindled down to zero, he began to second guess himself, and how Keith and Shiro might have turned out… He looked to Allura for comfort again, but he was afraid to say anything in the heat of the moment.

But then, just as Coran called out the last tick, the Red Lion came up on the monitor and Shiro spoke through the intercom. "Princess! We're coming back, and we're bringing someone you should meet."

"They're alright!" Coran cried out in joy. Everyone swore they felt an actual wave of relief wash over them then. Lance nearly turned to putty as he leaned back in his chair, exhaling audibly. 'Thank god…' he thought to himself. A small giggle then escaped his throat. He felt stupid for worrying so much, but he also felt such joy knowing they were okay.

Allura then ushered them to follow her, and they gathered at the Red Lion's hanger and waiting for them to return.

During their flight back, Kolivan apologized for his rude and almost hostile behavior toward them. "I must protect the values of the organization. Otherwise, there will be no hope in defeating Zarkon."

"Don't mention it." Shiro almost laughed. "We completely understand." He then glanced over at Keith, piloting the Lion as they stayed at the back of the cockpit, and whispered, "If anything, those guys who fought Keith should apologize."

Kolivan looked at the red paladin as well, and agreed with slight embarrassment. The members had just beaten Keith down to the bone, and now here they were being rescued by him. "Yes, it shall be done. Later on, of course."

"Yes, o- of course." Shiro agreed.

After they landed, Kolivan stepped out and introduced himself as the leader of the organization Ulaz informed them about. The holographic mask that covered his face now vanished as he greeted Allura, kneeling down on one knee respectfully. She then asked, not planning to waste any time, if she could consider him and the others allies in the fight against Zarkon.

He then rose and replied, "Yes, but we have little time to discuss this." Everyone gave him a puzzled look then. "I just received word from our spy inside the Galran hierarchy. They have become aware of our presence, so the time table for our plan has been moved up." he informed her sternly.

"How soon do we need to begin?" Shiro inquired.

"Now." Kolivan replied firmly. Allura then noticed the state Keith was in after he grimaced in pain. She told him and Shiro to get cleaned up and rest while she and Kolivan discussed the matter of things. Once everyone separated, she asked what happened while the other paladins were away, and Kolivan filled her in on that, and then about the spy he mentioned before.

Shiro helped Keith walk when his legs gave out every now and then as they made their way to a cryo-pod. He then whispered something to Shiro and asked him to relay the message to the others as he continued on.

"Guys, Keith would like to have some space for a while. He- went through a lot at that base. I'll explain it all later." he told them in a hushed tone. They all nodded and began to walk the other way.

Lance hesitated at first, worry for Keith still broiling in his stomach, but he understood and forced himself to walk away. He wondered what happened that Keith was so hushed-up about. Maybe he'd find out later. Hopefully he'd find out later.

Shiro then stopped Coran and asked him to help prepare Keith for the cryogenic healing process, explaining the battle he went through and his various wounds. "Why did he have to go through battle with the Marmorans?" Coran then inquired, genuinely curious.

"It was a trial…" Shiro began, but quickly realized he couldn't reveal the complete truth to Coran, since Keith asked him not to tell anyone. "A trial to see if we were worthy enough to know the secrets of the organization. I had to fight some of the members too, but Keith took the hardest hit."

The Altean understood and eagerly prompted himself over to Keith's side. The paladin held his shoulder again; the pain was getting worse.

They went into the infirmary and cleaned the wound out before Keith dressed himself in the suit. As much pain as he was in, he was hesitant to step into the cryo-pod again. He didn't want to go back in…it felt too soon. He became upset then, upset about having to live through such horrible things; upset that Kolivan couldn't have just told him his past…tested his blood or something… Keith eventually stepped in and closed his eyes, letting himself relax into the healing process.

After Shiro had changed out of his armor, he sat down with the others in the living room and explained things. He made sure to exclude the fact that Keith was part-Galra, at least for now. He figured if Keith wanted them to know, he'd say so himself. Pidge could hardly believe the story, Hunk broke into tears and dramatically wept, "How could they do that to him?! He just wanted to know where the knife came from! Such cruelty!" And Lance…well, he didn't say a word.

He was too furious; he figured if he said anything, it would either come out as a slew of curse words or he'd break into tears and cry with Hunk. He didn't want to be rude, or make them experience either of those options. Lance was truly a mess when he was mad.

They then separated and did their own things, Shiro heading to get some rest, and Pidge, Hunk and Lance heading over to the control room to meet up with Allura and Kolivan. Pidge told them they should probably be there to hear about the plan Kolivan was coming up with and such. Hunk wiped his face and agreed. Lance only nodded.

He wanted to go to the infirmary and sit with Keith until he came out…but he needed his space, like Shiro said. He tried his best to relax and get over things.

After a Allura and the others, excluding Keith and Shiro, were caught up on things and a small plan was devised, they separated and went to rest. Allura showed them to a grand room, designated especially for guests, where Kolivan and the other Blade of Marmora members would be staying. He thanked her earnestly.

Things were mellow for the next two days. The members that fought Keith apologized to him after he was healed, like Kolivan promised Shiro they would. Literally, each and every member that swung at him came up and apologized. They formed a single file line and all. He accepted their apologies, but things were awkward for a short while afterwards.

The member that slashed Keith's shoulder apologized twice, but Keith brushed it off and told him not to worry. The cryogenic process healed it nicely, but Keith still tried to hide it. Not that he walked around with his shirt off too often, but when he showered, he made sure to use two towels; one to wrap around his waist and another, smaller one to drape over his shoulders.

He also made sure to avoid bumping into Lance afterwards, since their bedrooms shared the same hallway and all. He knew the blue paladin liked to shower and pamper himself for at least a half hour before he went to bed, given he had the energy. So, Keith waited until he was done and asleep to wash up. He continued this for the next few days, even though he knew his wound wasn't going to heal any more than it already had. He just didn't want to be asked how he got the scar.

Then he would have to explain the battles he was put through, and naturally Lance would ask why he was put through them… He didn't want to talk about his Galran heritage, to anyone. He figured Shiro hadn't said anything, since everyone was acting as usual around him. But he knew he couldn't hide this from them forever; one way or another the truth would come out, like it always did.

Then one night as he laid in bed, a thought crossed his mind. What if he started to think like them, like the villainous Galrans on Zarkon's side? What if he started to look less human and more Galra? How would he be able to hide that?

'What if I lose my mind one day, worse than I had when I had Lance's thoughts mixed in with mine?' The thought made him cringe and curl up into a ball on his side. He was afraid he'd lose all control and attack the others, attack Lance… He would never forgive himself if that ever happened…

Keith ended up staying awake nearly the whole night that day, tossing and turning and crossing himself in thought.

* * *

 _Thank you so much for reading! Reviews and favorites are noticed and appreciated. :)_


	11. Update

**Author's Note:** Hello! So this is a fresh new update, meaning the other update new readers read was very outdated. I apologize! Life just won't stop throwing its curveballs at me its hella annoying. So I haven't been able to touch this fic for a while. To be honest I got into Attack on Titan and was working on a fic for that series soooo yeah please don't shoot me lol

With the new season (5) of Voltron out, I will try to work on the next chapter (11) as much as I can. I had an essay to write and tests to study for recently and on top of that work to take care of and my life has just been a hot mess. But with all of that over and spring break coming up, I'm going to take some time to write something cohesive lol.

I still will not put a release date out for the next chapter but I will keep my updates as frequent as possible!

Also: I would love to have conversation with you guys, it makes me so happy when I read comments, for real. Let me know what your thoughts were on Season 5!

Thanks, love you!

[To be replaced with Chapter 11 content. Updated 3/6/2018]


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